For so many Chicago Bears draft enthusiasts, it’s one of those “Where were you when-?” moments. It was April of 2014. The 1st round was underway. Most understood that the defense was in dire need of help. Brian Urlacher and Lance Briggs were gone as was Julius Peppers. The team badly needed a stalwart they could build around for the next generation. All eyes were on a young phenom out of Pitt named Aaron Donald.
He was everything the team could ask for. Though undersized he was one of the most impressive interior pass rushers to come out of college in a decade. A perfect fit for that three-technique position in the Bears’ 4-3 system. The same one manned by the likes of Tommie Harris and Henry Melton in years past.
As the round continued, hopes began to rise. Donald kept falling, and falling, and falling. He dropped out of the top 10. The Bears were right there at #14. A couple more spots: 11, 12. Just one more. Alas, the football gods were not on their side that day. The St. Louis Rams, with the 13th pick, grabbed Donald for their defense.
As the stories go, the #Bears draft room fell eerily quiet when the Rams drafted Aaron Donald … they were one pick away … they loved him.
— Adam Jahns (@adamjahns) August 31, 2018
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Fast forward to the present day. Donald is now the highest-paid defensive player in NFL history, netting $134 million across six years. He’s a former Defensive Player of the Year, perennial All-Pro and one of the best of his generation. The what-if questions are painful. Then again, for the Bears? It’s nothing new. Coming one pick away from landing a superstar has been an all-too-regular occurrence in their history.
Andre Johnson (2003)
Think about this for a second. How different might the Bears 2006 Super Bowl run have ended if they’d had Andre Johnson on offense instead of Muhsin Muhammad and Bernard Berrian. The 7-time Pro Bowler almost became a reality for them in 2003. The Bears had the #4 pick and a glaring need at wide receiver after the David Terrell debacle.
Sadly the Houston Texans were there at #3 to grab the Miami stud first. With nobody left available they wanted, the Bears ended up trading back twice in the first round, securing the #14 and #22 picks. Those ended up becoming defensive end Michael Haynes and quarterback Rex Grossman.
Charles Woodson (1998)
The 1998 draft was a nightmare for the Bears. Not only did they miss out on Peyton Manning after winning one more game than they needed to for the #1 pick, it got so much worse when the 1st round played out. They still had a chance to get a good player with the #5 pick. All they had to do was catch a fortunate bounce.
They almost did. Charles Woodson, the only defender to ever win the Heisman trophy and future all-time great defensive back, fell to #4 before the Oakland Raiders called his name. Try to imagine him in that defense that would eventually employ Brian Urlacher as well? Instead, Woodson wound up in Green Bay where he further tortured the Bears for several years.
Art Monk (1980)
The Bears defense was steadily starting to build something special by the start of the 1980s. That wasn’t the problem. What they needed was somebody on offense to help out Walter Payton who was basically doing it all himself. Now this one shouldn’t be slammed on the Bears too much. They ended up getting Otis Wilson, a future Pro Bowl player.
Still, it’s fair to wonder how different things might’ve been had the Washington Redskins gone elsewhere at #18 overall in the 1980 draft. Art Monk was a playmaker out of Syracuse who would become an eventual Hall of Famer. Somebody who helped to ruin the Bears dreams of a second championship in 1986 and 1987 when they lost two-straight years to the Redskins.
Isiah Robertson (1971)
No era epitomized the Bears’ near-miss disasters more than the early 1970s. Chicago was looking for more defensive help in ’71 to aide the banged-up Dick Butkus. They were in good position to do so with the 11th pick in the 1st round. In the end they went with running back Joe Moore who didn’t even last three years.
They almost got their wish though. Isiah Robertson was one of many future stars who came out of black colleges in the early and mid-1970s. The Los Angeles Rams (again) scooped him up at #10 overall. He’d help them become a perennial playoff contender throughout the decade, reaching six Pro Bowls.
Terry Bradshaw (1970)
As painful as the Robertson miss ended up being, what happened the year before was so many times worse. Everybody knew going into the 1970 draft that Louisiana Tech quarterback Terry Bradshaw was the prize. He had everything a team could want from size to mobility and a rocket right arm. All the Bears had to do to get him? Win a coin flip.
Chicago and Pittsburgh both finished with the same losing record in 1969, meaning they would have to decide who held the top pick on a coin flip. The Bears called it wrong and Bradshaw became a Steeler. He would go on to win four Super Bowls and enter Canton. It’s hard not wondering what could have been if Chicago had paired him with Walter Payton a few years later.
