Windy City Gridiron
A few Chicago players and a coach made the team!
By now, I hope you've all had the chance to check out the recent Fanpost by 10mphilbin, where he picked a Chicago Bears All-Quarter Century Team. It’s a fun trip down memory lane, remembering some great Bears. Earlier today, ESPN‘s Aaron Schatz and Seth Walder named their own All-Quarter Century Team for the NFL, and a few Bears made the cut.
A quick tangent before getting into the ESPN list: Our Fanpost section, for those who aren’t aware, is a great place for all our WCG members to share their thoughts on the team. You can write your own articles there, and occasionally we’ll bump them to our front page. It’s also where we first look when adding front page contributors here. That’s where I started a long, long time ago, and it’s also where most of our team got started.
In the last quarter century, the Bears have only made the playoffs six times and they’ve only had a winning record seven times, so we aren’t talking about a lot of choices for ESPN, but the Lovie Smith era did have some well put-together teams.
Here are the Bears who played all or most of their careers in Chicago who made the cut.
Teams: Bears (2000-12)
Résumé since 2000: 41.5 sacks, 11 forced fumbles, 22 interceptions, one-time DPOY, five-time All-Pro
The Urlacher-led Bears had the third-best defense in terms of EPA per play from 2001 to 2012. His 22 career interceptions are the second most by any linebacker in the past 25 years, behind only Lewis’ 26. Urlacher ranks fourth among all players in plus-EPA per game at minus-3.59, too. — Walder
Urlacher could do it all on the field, and he proved that by playing in two very different styles of defense in Chicago. Just becuase he was the prototype mikkeld linebacker for Lovie’s Tampa 2, don’t forget how great he was for Dick Jauron in Greg Blache’s scheme. He was definitely worthy of his first ballot Hall of Fame honor.
Teams: Bears (2006-13), Falcons (2014-15), Ravens (2016), Seahawks (2016)
Résumé since 2000: 20 return touchdowns, 11,028 total return yards, four-time All-Pro
Though Hester is remembered for scoring on the opening kickoff in Super Bowl XLI, he was actually more prolific as a punt returner. Fourteen of his return touchdowns came off punts; no other player recorded more than four in that same span. In 2024, he became the first return specialist to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. — Walder
Hester changed the game with his ridiculous return ability, but the hidden yards gained by teams who would avoid him on kicks and punts are often overlooked by pundits when discussing his impact.
ESPN also picked a practice squad for their team, and Cordarrelle Patterson, who spent two of his All-Pro seasons in Chicago, made it as a special teamer....
