Chicago Bears: Greatest Draft Class of the Last 20 Years

The 2003 Bears’ draft was one where they were rich with picks, and the team’s fans could barely contain themselves. It yielded two of the top players in franchise history. That same draft also produced two of the biggest busts of all time. It was the first two picks which were the busts, and both were first-rounders.

Selecting the greatest draft class in the last two decades already came with a bag of tricks, and selecting this Bears’ class, in particular, was something of a paradox – the recipe for discombobulation. It’s also the reason why the NFL draft is like a game of roulette.

Here are the sequential draft selections for the 2003 Chicago Bears:

 

Round 1, #14 overall – Defensive End Michael Haynes

Haynes can be found on just about any list of Bears’ draft busts. He made his mark during his dream-fulfilling senior year at Penn State, in which he racked up 15 sacks on the season.

Unfortunately for the Bears, he wouldn’t even start a game during his rookie season. In the years that followed, he could never beat out the other starters and didn’t work out when they tried him out at DT. In three years, he managed 71 tackles and 5.5 sacks.

He was traded to the Saints where he was declared inactive before his first game and released. To add insult to insult, he was picked up by the Jets and released a single day later. He’d never play another down of football in the NFL.

 

Round 1, #22 overall – Quarterback Rex Grossman

The irony surrounding this situation is so thick that it cannot go without mention. During the same first round in which they got their first bust, they somehow chose another of the Bears’ all-time biggest bust candidates. It would sound rather unbelievable if it weren’t actually true.

The residents of Chicago pinned their hopes on Grossman, who let them down immediately by throwing an opening-day interception to seal the loss against the Lions. He tore his ACL two weeks later. The next season he broke his ankle in the preseason.

Grossman finally got going in 2005, and in 2006 the Bears made a miraculous Super Bowl run.  He famously put up a passer rating of zero for the last game of the regular season, however. That game brought him down to a 64.4 passer rating.

After they lost that Super Bowl game Grossman’s career began to dwindle. He was dubbed the worst Super Bowl quarterback of all time.

By 2012 he was bumped to third-string quarterback for the Redskins. He coasted through his remaining years as a backup for various teams and managed to stick around in the NFL until 2015.

Round 2, #35 overall – Defensive Back Charles “Peanut” Tillman

Tillman was just considered a good player until he became credited with the “Peanut Punch.”  In his later years, he became something of a celebrity around the league. He’s also an important part of the backstory of the modern NFL. He taught everyone how to do the punch due through slow-motion replay. He once forced a record four fumbles in one game and had ten on the season.

He played for the Bears for 12 years, finishing his career with a whopping 44 forced fumbles and 38 interceptions. He’s still not in the Hall of Fame, and many believe this to be an ongoing mistake by the committee. Here are his career accolades:

• First-team All-Pro (2012)
• 2× Pro Bowl (2011, 2012)
• NFL forced fumbles leader (2012)
• Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year (2013)
• 100 greatest Bears of All-Time

Round 3, #68 overall – Linebacker Lance Briggs

Briggs played side-by-side with Brian Urlacher to create one of the most devastating linebacking corps in the history of the game. He is also apparently on the snub list for the HOF committee. His numbers could be good enough to get in if judging solely by tackles. He was a pure tackling cyborg and racked up 1,174 of them during his career.

Here are some other items in his trophy cabinet:

• First-team All-Pro (2005)
• Second-team All-Pro (2006, 2009)
• 7× Pro Bowl (2005–2011)
• 100 Greatest Bears of All-Time

The remaining picks are as follows: