Chicago Bears draft fans, like regular fans, have a love-hate relationship with ESPN. These days it’s still a respected venue that puts out some really good work. Some of its writers are fair and honest in evaluations. Then again, it’s always felt like the sports giant finds a way to disrespect the franchise in one form or another. Most often by not having any real clue about its history in terms of what is perceived and what is true.
Sadly that was on display again with one of their most recent power rankings. Columnists Brian Burke and Doug Clawson set about listing the 32 greatest draft classes of the Super Bowl era. Their method was using the website Pro-Football-Reference and their Approximate Value stat. The reason for this choice?
“It is a composite measure of a player’s value to his team, based roughly on game appearances, game starts and awards such as Pro Bowl and All-Pro selections. Meaningful individual stats also help determine a player’s AV, and the metric is boosted for players who are members of winning teams.”
Getting the wrong Chicago Bears draft
Fair enough. Sounds pretty interesting. It turned out well for the Bears. One of their draft classes ranked fourth overall on the list. The problem is which class it ended up being. That of 1975, the first under well-known former GM Jim Finks. They explained how the conclusion was reached on this.
“This very deep class is headlined by one of the greatest running backs in NFL history, Walter Payton, who would carry the Bears’ Super Bowl XX offense a decade later. Defensive end Mike Hartenstine was the other standout from this class. He played for 13 seasons and had eight starts for the ’85 championship defense.
The 1965 class was before the common draft era, but it featured Hall of Famers Gale Sayers and Dick Butkus, who were picked Nos. 3 and No. 4 overall, respectively. But even if we included this group, its 347 AV pales in comparison with the ’75 Bears class because of Sayers’ and Butkus’ relatively short careers.”
With respect to the work the two men did, and it’s an understandable approach, the fact of the matter is they’re wrong. The best Bears draft in franchise history was not 1975. Look, Walter Payton was an all-time great. He deserves every bit of adulation he ever got and still gets to this day. That being said most of his biggest accomplishments didn’t amount to much for the team. The same goes for the rest of that draft class.
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The real winner
Chicago made the playoffs twice when the bulk of that group was together. Not a terrible accomplishment but nowhere near the impact of the actual best class in Bears history. That being the 1983 group:
- Jimbo Covert
- Willie Gault
- Mike Richardson
- Dave Duerson
- Tom Thayer
- Richard Dent
- Mark Bortz
Understand that this class had four men reach at least two Pro Bowls in their career. It had seven players start at least five seasons or more for the Bears. Two of them started 10 seasons or more. Also they collectively helped the team reach the playoffs five times. All of those stats are superior to the 1975 class. Not to mention they were more directly responsible for winning the Super Bowl in 1985. Even more so than Payton.
Sweetness was and remains the best player in history the Bears franchise has ever drafted. Yet one man, not even with his aura, can carry an entire draft class. The 1975 group is forgettable without him. With him it rise to become really good. Still, the fact remains that the 1983 class was far superior. The stats, depth and impact prove that much.
Using fancy metric systems to decide such things can be fun and novel at times. Then again there comes a moment where common sense has to take over. This is one of those moments.
