Making the case for Lance Briggs to be the next Bears player inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
The Chicago Bears saw a few of their all-time greats make it to the Pro Football Hall of Fame last week — Devin Hester, Steve McMichael and Julius Peppers. The Bears were the first team to have three players (at least four years with the team) who made the Hall of Fame in the same year since the San Francisco 49ers in 2000.
These guys will be celebrated and rightfully so. It will also drive the conversation about who from the Bears’ storied history deserves to make it to Canton. A few really good candidates come to mind, but linebacker Lance Briggs is at the top of the list.
Briggs spent a lot of incredible years as a linebacker for the Bears after they drafted him in the third round of the 2003 NFL draft. From that moment on, he became a franchise legend. He should be in the Hall of Fame based on all of his accomplishments.
Was he as good as Brian Urlacher? No, he was not. Playing the same position at the same time as Urlacher might make some people question his legitimacy as a Hall of Fame candidate but it shouldn’t. Two elite players can play together at the same time. Just because one was slightly better doesn’t mean that the other should be punished.
There are a few numbers to support Briggs as a Hall of Famer with or without Urlacher around. For one, Urlacher missed the entire 2009 season after suffering an injury in Week 1. Briggs went on to lead Chicago in tackles with 118 that year. That effort earned him a trip to the Pro Bowl.
Briggs is a three-time All-Pro, seven-time Pro Bowler and among the 100 greatest Bears of All-Time.
He also had a total of six career defensive touchdowns, which are the third most in team history. Five of those were interceptions, which is the second most interception touchdown returns for any Bear ever. He had one in each of his first three NFL seasons, which are the most ever. There is no doubt that this guy was as impactful as anyone during his time.
We don’t know when Briggs’ time is going to come, but it should be soon. He’s been among the original 100-plus nominees, but he hasn’t yet made it to the semifinalist stage. Briggs is one of the best linebackers from his era and deserves to be recognized as such.
Former Bears Lance Briggs and Kyle Long discussed Justin Fields and whether the team should build around him or move on this offseason.
Justin Fields’ future in Chicago is one of the biggest storylines from what’s been a disappointing 2023 season.
The Bears are trending toward having the top two selections in the 2024 NFL draft — between their own selection (No. 2) and the Panthers’ pick (No. 1). With Chicago trending toward being in a position to select first overall, USC quarterback Caleb Williams has been a hot topic.
Williams is considered by many to be the consensus top quarterback in the 2024 draft, where some have gone as far to call him a generational talent.
There’s been a debate among Bears fans whether the team should draft Williams or trade the pick away, if it comes to it. But what do former Bears players think?
Former Bears linebacker Lance Briggs and guard Kyle Long believe that the team should opt to build around Fields rather than draft Williams, if they get the No. 1 pick.
“I’m not taking Caleb Williams,” Briggs said on ESPN 1000’s The Chicago Bears Podcast. “…I have a Caleb Williams on my team right now. Why am I going to go get another Caleb Williams and have the same problems I have right now?”
Briggs admitted that, if he was going to replace Fields, he’d go with a different style quarterback — a pocket passer. Still, Briggs a
“I’m not replacing (Fields). I’ll have another first-round pick the next year,” Briggs said. “I’m going (offensive) line.”
Lance Briggs says he'd rather keep Justin Fields than draft Caleb Williams.
Long shared his thoughts on what the Bears should do with Fields beyond this season. And he believes Chicago already has a solid foundation in Fields — but hte team needs to invest in building around him.
“If we’re going to build this things, we’re going to build it around something,” Long said on the BFR Podcast. “You don’t just put a house in a field. It’s on a foundation. And the foundation that this team — and I’m projecting here to next year — the foundation that this team is being built on is Justin Fields. And you need to do whatever you can to make that as strong a foundation as you can with offensive pieces on the edge and then, to your point, in the line.”
Kyle Long give his thoughts on Fields and what the Bears should do with him moving forward pic.twitter.com/DzTUvTXApi
The fact that it’s former players — who have been in these kinds of situations — agreeing the team needs to build in the trenches speaks volumes.
There’s still 11 games left this season — although Fields is currently sidelined with a dislocated thumb on his throwing hand — but it’s safe to say this will continue to be a hot topic for the duration of this season and heading into the offseason.
The Bears failed to capitalize the last time Green Bay moved on from their franchise QB. Here is why things could be different this time.
The Aaron Rodgers era is officially over for the Green Bay Packers as he’s finally heading east to the New York Jets in a trade that’s been in the works for weeks.
On Monday, it was announced Rodgers would be traded to the Jets involving a bevy of draft picks, giving the 39-year-old quarterback a new home after a period of uncertainty in Green Bay. With Rodgers’ departure comes the end of a dominant division run by the Packers in the NFC North for the last 15 or so years.
Since Rodgers became the full-time starter in Green Bay, the Packers have won the NFC North eight times and made the postseason as a wild card team another three times with varying degrees of playoff success. They also handled the Bears with ease, going 26-5 in the regular season and 1-0 in the postseason. But now with Rodgers gone and Jordan Love taking over, the rivalry is back to a level playing field with the future of the division potentially up for grabs as well.
It’s been 15 years since we’ve seen a changing of the guard in Green Bay, coming back in 2008 when Rodgers took over for Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre. Even with a roster that was one overtime away from going to Super Bowl XLII, the Packers were in a similar transition period that next season and after a couple of up-and-down years, they defied the odds with Rodgers eclipsing Favre’s greatness.
Back then, the Bears couldn’t take full advantage of the small opening as Rodgers settled in. Even winning the NFC North in the 2010 season couldn’t stop him and the Packers as they defeated the Bears in the playoffs as a wild card team on their way to winning Super Bowl XLV.
This time, however, the Bears are more equipped to compete in the revamped NFC North for the foreseeable future thanks to an ascending quarterback, a young roster, and a front office that is getting players to buy into the process.
With the Bears transitioning to a 4-3 defense, LB coach Dave Borgonzi has gone into the vault for some inspiration.
With the Chicago Bears transitioning to a 4-3 defense, linebackers coach Dave Borgonzi has gone into the vault for some inspiration.
Borgonzi shows his players film of former Bears linebackers Brian Urlacher and Lance Briggs, who thrived in Lovie Smith’s defense a couple of decades earlier.
These current Bears appreciate seeing former players in this system, like Urlacher and Briggs, whether it’s that Lovie Smith defense or film from Matt Eberflus’ defenses.
“They enjoy that,” Borgonzi said. “They like seeing the former players in the system play, whether it’s Chicago film, Tampa Bay film with coach [Tony] Dungy, Dallas film when coach Flus was there, Indianapolis. We always talk about the system and the style of play. I think they really enjoy doing that.”
Urlacher and Briggs anchored those dominant Bears defenses in the early 2000s, and the pair have combined for 15 Pro Bowls, 5 first-team All-Pro nods and 3 second-team All-Pro nods. Urlacher was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame during his first year of eligibility in 2018.
No one is expecting this group of Bears linebackers to reach those levels. But the hope is this group, featuring Roquan Smith and Nicholas Morrow, will see noticeable improvement in this scheme.
Finding impactful players in the NFL draft isn’t always easy. But the Bears have had their share of success in the last 10 years.
The 2022 NFL draft is less than two weeks away and the Chicago Bears and general manager Ryan Poles will set out to add impactful players to the roster.
This will be Poles’ first go around with the draft as a GM and he’s tasked with finding the next class of great Bears players. Of course, it will take years to determine how well those selections will pan out.
Finding impactful players in the NFL draft isn’t always easy and finding and developing stars can be challenging. However, the Bears have had their share of success since the turn of the century. Here are our top 10 Bears draft picks since 2000.
The Bears aren’t expected to be involved during the franchise tag window. But they’ve used the tag five times in the past.
The franchise tag period opened Tuesday, but the Chicago Bears aren’t expected to use the tag on anyone. That includes wide receiver Allen Robinson, who will be one of the highly-sought after free agents next month.
While the Bears won’t be in the franchise tag market this offseason, there are a number of players who could be, including some potential free agents they might covet like a Davante Adams or a Cam Robinson.
In the past, Chicago has used the franchise tag five times, which includes some well-deserving names and one surprise.
Here’s a look at the five players who the Bears used the franchise tag on dating back to 2007.
As it turns out, Marc Trestman and Brandon Marshall have a tremendous amount of respect for one another after two years together with Bears.
There were many surprising developments that took place off the football field for the Chicago Bears, but the biggest one might be that former head coach Marc Trestman hosts a leadership podcast – and he had Brandon Marshall on as his latest guest.
Trestman is now an adjunct professor and hosts The Leadership Gameplan, a podcast from the University of Miami School of Law that discusses leadership strategies with various guests. In the most recent episode, Marshall joined Trestman to discuss his own leadership endeavors, both on the field and off.
As it turns out, Trestman and Marshall have a tremendous amount of respect for one another after spending two years together in Chicago. Their tenure was marred by blowout losses, fighting within the locker room, and controversies that have many fans believing it was the worst era in team history.
Now years later, they sat down to talk leadership but also peeled back the curtain during their days in Chicago to explain why some things worked and others didn’t. When it came to Trestman’s leadership style, Marshall actually said he was ahead of his time and that’s why it didn’t work out.
“You were ahead of your time and if there’s one thing you could potentially have done differently is understand that. But I don’t know if you could have,” Marshall told his former coach. “The old way of doing thing in sports was ‘hey, I’ve got these four leaders, you guys are going to do everything…you guys run the show.’ And you came in and you brought in what everyone is adopting now.”
Matt Marton-USA TODAY Sports
When Trestman was hired back in 2013, he put a major emphasis on leadership and what he brought to the table as head coach. He preferred to lead from the back of the meeting rooms, invited countless guest speakers for motivation, encouraged players to speak their minds, and never cursed them out. For some locker rooms, especially in 2021, that might have been the right approach. But not back then as Marshall explained further.
The receiver went on to say because of how the locker room was constructed following the firing of Lovie Smith, Trestman’s message fell on deaf ears.
“I think that was a tough thing for us in Chicago was that locker room was so tight,” Marshall said. “You had Brian Urlacher, Lance Briggs, [Charles] Peanut Tillman, these guys that were used to one way of thinking, one way of approaching it. And when something new was introduced, it was like a shock to their system and that was the toughest thing.
“You probably spent maybe that entire first year just getting guys to buy in and believe because football is football….the way you set up our philosophy was ‘okay, we know there’s going to be problems but I’m going to give you guys the solutions’ and some of you guys can do that, but structurally, because it was so counterculture to what those guys were used to, it took us a year to kind of just get guys to buy in. We’re talking about big personalities.”
Heading into Trestman’s first season, the team had just said goodbye to Urlacher but still had Briggs and Tillman, who had played under a respected and defensive coach in Smith for nine years. Now they were under an offensive-minded coach who was a stark contrast from Smith.
While Trestman’s arrival saw an offensive explosion as they averaged 381 yards per game in 2013, the defense suffered greatly. Once the calling card of Bears football, the defense fell to historic lows as the Bears trudged through an 8-8 season in year one before bottoming out at 5-11 in year two.
Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY Sports
Though Marshall enjoyed success in Trestman’s offense, posting over 2,000 receiving yards and 20 touchdowns in 29 games, the two seemed to butt heads quite a bit, with Marshall having outbursts in the locker room, the sideline, and in practice over certain issues. But the two were able to laugh it off, with Marshall apologizing to Trestman.
“I used to get so upset with you, this is when I was young Brandon. But I get it now, though so first off, I apologize for all the stress I caused,” Marshall said.
“I had a full head of hair when I got to Chicago,” Trestman quipped.
Both Marshall and Trestman moved on from the Bears after 2014, with Trestman bouncing around the NFL as a coordinator, then moving back to the CFL, and finishing his football career as a head coach of the XFL’s Tampa Bay Vipers.
Marshall, meanwhile, was traded to the New York Jets where he spent two seasons, then joined the New York Giants and Seattle Seahawks before retiring after the 2018 season. He amassed over 12,000 receiving yards and 80+ touchdowns throughout his 13-year career. Now, he is the founder and owner of House of Athlete, a lifestyle and wellness brand for athletes.
The Trestman and Marshall era is well in the rearview mirror, but it’s still one of the most controversial periods in Bears history. Hearing Trestman and Marshall talk about leadership was surprising, but are they correct in thinking the philosophy was just too early for that time? Or was Trestman always doomed to fail, no matter what era he coached in?
Looks like we have ourselves a mild Twitter beef between Eddie Jackson and Lance Briggs following tackling criticism.
Looks like we have ourselves a mild Twitter beef between two former All-Pro Chicago Bears.
Former Bears linebacker Lance Briggs, now an analyst for NBC Sports Chicago, had some choice words for current safety Eddie Jackson on The Football Aftershow following the Bears 24-14 loss to the Green Bay Packers.
Briggs called out Jackson’s inability to make key tackles, specifically the hit on Packers wide receiver Davante Adams late in the game:
“Eddie Jackson, we’ve talked to this before and his name keeps coming up for the wrong reasons. His name keeps coming up for reasons as, you are the safety, you are the last line of defense. When you come up and you make that hit on Davante Adams and he gets past you, it’s going to be a touchdown, kid! You have to make that play, get him down by any means necessary. Don’t care how you do it. Even if you, shoot, get the worst flag, still keeps him out of the endzone. But you got to find a way to get him down.”
It appears Jackson heard the criticism from Briggs and briefly quote tweeted an old post from Pro Football Focus dating back to 2011. The post was about the Briggs’ own issues with tackling during his playing days, indicating he led the league in missed tackles for a three-year period.
Jackson posted the tweet with the thinking emoji late Sunday evening before deleting it a few minutes later.
Perhaps Jackson just had a few minutes of frustration before coming to his senses, but he clearly wasn’t happy with what Briggs said. Jackson’s tackling issues have also persisted for years since he was drafted by the Bears, but he made up for that deficiency with his ball-hawking skills.
Since his interceptions have dried up over the last season and a half, coupled with footage of him explaining to young defensive backs how he focuses on going for the ball rather than tackling, fans and analysts alike have grown tired of him failing to bring down the ball carrier consistently.
It’s very possible this brief back-and-forth ends here, but seeing Jackson try and discredit Briggs isn’t the best look after a bad loss to the Packers.
In this week’s Throwback Thursday, the Bears celebrated Christmas ’05 with a 24-17 win over the Packers and division title at Lambeau Field.
Every Thursday throughout the 2020 regular season, Bears Wire looks back at some of the most memorable moments in Chicago Bears history that occurred on or near that given day.
December 25, 2005: Bears celebrate Christmas at Lambeau Field with a 24-17 win and division title
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXlV16JL5g0
Back in 2005, there weren’t many new feats the Chicago Bears haven’t accomplished in their storied history. Well, except having a quarterback who can throw for 4,000 yards and 30 touchdowns. But up until 2005, the Bears had never played a football game on Christmas day. When it finally happened, they made sure it was a memorable game.
Fifteen years ago, the Bears turned a slow start to their season into an improbable playoff run during head coach Lovie Smith’s second season. Led by one of the best defenses of the decade, along with a power running game, the Bears were stifling opponents left and right, winning 10 games and were on the verge of capturing a division title. They just needed to defeat their biggest rival, the Green Bay Packers, to get there.
In their primetime matchup, the Bears struck first. Quarterback Rex Grossman, who was making his first start of the season after missing much of the year with a broken ankle, fired a dart to wide receiver Muhsin Muhammad on the Bears’ first drive to put them up 7-0. The lead wouldn’t last, though, as the Packers responded on their next drive.
Quarterback Brett Favre drove down the field on a defense that had only allowed 12.6 points per game, tying it up at 7-7. Green Bay had a chance to take the lead on their next possession but missed a 38-yard field goal attempt from kicker Ryan Longwell. From there, the Bears began to turn things around. Grossman launched a 54-yard bomb to wide receiver Bernard Berrian to put the Bears in striking distance. Running back Thomas Jones finished the job, putting the Bears up 14-7. The veteran back had 105 yards on 25 carries.
Things got worse for the Packers as Favre began throwing passes to the other team. The Hall of Fame quarterback threw four interceptions in total, including a pick six to linebacker Lance Briggs that put the Bears up 24-7 in the third quarter. The game tightened at the end, however, when the Packers cut the Bears lead to 24-17 late in the fourth quarter.
With one last chance and just under a minute to go, Favre would fall short in his comeback bid as he would be picked off to end the game. The win gave the Bears the NFC North title, a first-round bye in the playoffs, a sweep of the Packers for the first time since 1991, and one heck of a Christmas present for fans everywhere.
Anthony Adams discussed Charles Tillman’s and Lance Briggs’ Hall of Fame candidacy and how he might pitch the committee on each player.
When it comes to describing how dominant Chicago Bears cornerback Charles Tillman and linebacker Lance Briggs were during their careers, not many people are as qualified as their former teammate Anthony “Spice” Adams.
Adams, who played defensive tackle for the Bears from 2007-11, sat down with Bears Wire to talk about a number of topics, from the current team’s inability to run the ball, to grilling for Thanksgiving with Kingsford pellets. The former Penn State standout also discussed Tillman’s and Briggs’ Hall of Fame candidacy and how he might pitch the committee on each player.
Tillman and Briggs each played for the Bears from 2003 to 2014. Briggs retired after 2014 and Tillman played one season with the Carolina Panthers before calling it a career. Between the two of them, they combined for nine pro bowls, two first-team all-pro selections and two second-team all-pro selections. Briggs is in his second year of eligibility while Tillman is entering his first.
Adams, playing with both of them for five seasons, had no issue explaining why both players should get a gold jacket, despite the news that neither player was included as a Modern-Era Player Semifinalist this year for the Pro Football Hall of Fame selection in February.
Adams on Charles Tillman:
“Oh that’s easy. If you’re a wide receiver and you catch the ball, you want to know where he is at all times. That right there is a game changer. Look at the Tennessee Titans game (in 2012), the guy forced four fumbles. Anytime you’re around him and you look around and don’t see him, you’re like ‘oh my gosh he must be right behind me’ or something like that. You want to know where he is at all times. That’s what he does, he punches the ball out. I’ve seen him do it in the lunchroom with your food, in the hallways with the playbook. I’ve seen him do it when you’re getting your laundry, the guy is knocking out your socks. His mind is always on punching the ball out. A guy like that definitely changed the game. He should definitely be in the Hall of Fame.”
Tillman truly did change the game of football, as every football that is punched out of the ball carrier’s hands is now commonly referred as the “Peanut Punch” across the country.
Tillman specialized in ripping away the football, but he was still a dominant cornerback all the way around. In addition to his 44 forced fumbles, a record for a defensive back, Tillman picked off 38 passes and had 925 tackles over his career, including 100 in one season back in 2011.
Adams on Lance Briggs:
“You talk about a guy who probably averaged over 100 tackles every year that he’s been healthy. Multiple touchdowns, multiple interceptions. The guy is all over the place every year. The most consistent – I think he had seven or eight pro bowls in a 13 year career? I can’t say enough about Lance Briggs. You think about all of the great linebackers in Chicago Bears history and Lance Briggs is definitely one of those, for sure.”
Briggs was one of the most consistent players in the 2000s, going to seven-straight Pro Bowls during the height of the Bears defense. He and Hall of Fame linebacker Brian Urlacher formed one of the greatest linebacking duos in NFL history and Briggs clearly stands out in the minds of his former teammates. In 12 season, he amassed 1,181 tackles, including 97 for a loss.
While Tillman and Briggs will have to wait another year to see if they can become a semifinalist for the Hall of Fame, many around the league, including Adams, believe they’re deserving to have their bust enshrined in Canton, OH.
