Open Thread Question of the Day: Who is the Chicago Bears' next Hall of Famer?

The Bears have put more players in the Hall of Fame than any other franchise...who’s next?

There are a lot of ways to measure success.

Winning percentage? The Dallas Cowboys are best in the league at a .595 clip.

Super Bowl Championships? The New England Patriots and Pittsburgh Steelers both have 6.

Hall of Famers? The Chicago Bears are the best in the league with 39 players with their Bronze Busts in Canton.

The Bears have done awfully well in the category of Hall of Famers recently, with Devin Hester, Julius Peppers, Steve McMichael, Jimbo Covert, Ed Sprinkle, and Brian Urlacher having been enshrined since 2018.

Not a bad list of players.

However, with Hester, Mongo, and Peppers being elected, there are a lot of questions on who the next HOF Bear will be.

In September of 2024, the NFL announced a list of 167 modern-era candidates eligible for the 2025 Hall of Fame. Of those players, 14 of them played for the Bears:

• QB Doug Flutie
• RB Thomas Jones
• RB Glyn Milburn
• WR Brandon Marshall
• WR Muhsin Muhammad
• G Ruben Brown
• C Olin Kreutz
• G Josh Sitton
• DE Jared Allen (2025 Hall of Fame Class)
• DL Clyde Simmons
• DT Ted Washington
• LB Brendon Ayanbadejo
• LB Lance Briggs
• CB Charles Tillman

Of these candidates, only a handful of them make sense to be elected, with even fewer of them being recognized as Bears.

• C Olin Kreutz (Six Pro Bowls, One 1st Team All-Pro, One 2nd Team All-Pro) | Played 13 of 14 seasons with Bears.
• LB Lance Briggs (Seven Pro Bowls, One 1st Team All-Pro, Two 2nd Team All-Pro) | Played 12 of 12 seasons with Bears.
• CB Charles Tillman (Two Pro Bowls, One 1st Team All-Pro, Fifth Place AP Rookie of the Year) | Played 12 of 13 seasons with Bears

Players like Jared Allen (2025 Class), Ruben Brown, Ted Washington, and Brandon Marshall may have varying degrees of arguments, but none of them played a significant enough chunk of their careers with the Bears.

Additionally, players like Thomas Jones and Mushin Muhammad were important players during their Bears’ tenures, but don’t have strong enough cases to make the Hall.

Some other former Bears players that have been previously passed on or will be newly eligible in the coming years include:

• Jay Hilgenberg (Seven Pro-Bowls, Two 1st Team All-Pros, Two 2nd Team All-Pros) | Played 12 of 13 seasons with Bears
• Greg Olsen - 2026 HOF Eligible (Three Pro Bowls and Two 2nd Team All-Pros) | Played 4 of 14 seasons with Bears.
• Robert Quinn - 2028 HOF Eligible (Three Pro Bowls, One 1st Team All-Pro, One 2nd Team All-Pro) | Played 3 of 12 seasons with Bears
• Khalil Mack - ? HOF Eligible (Nine Pro Bowls, Three 1st Team All-Pros, One 2nd Team All-Pro, 2016 DPOY) | Played 4 of 11 seasons with Bears.

So what does...