Thread: Bears best-ever linebackers WHO YA GOT

Think Mullin hit Most of the spots( though disagree briggs a pass rushing threat), while some harp on the lack of qb success, here is a position where the Bears BY FAR THE BEST IN NFL HISTORY, and its not even close, most teams do not have 1 HOF LB, much less 4( and soon to be 5 or 6), which makes it the most remarkable run at any position in NFL history, of the 1950's to now almost always having a HOF linebacker playing for the bears "D":

1. Butkus- the Most Feared "D" man of all time

2. Urlacher- the size/speed/strength off the Charts at combine( from a 3rd-4th rounder to top 10 after) and hasn't dissapointed since

3. Tie Bill George and george conner- While Bill george gets the credit for the MLB spot invention, Conner was already doing it in some formations for the bears in early 1950's.. and like Ulracher just a freak physical specimen,the "adonis of football" at the time, and gets extra bonus points for being a 2 way player and probowl Tackle also.

5. Samurai singletary- The beast and heart of the 1980's "D", and on any other team would be the top or top 2 LB's in their history

6. Lance briggs- just chugging along putting up the numbers and solid play, which should never get overlooked

7. Doug Buffone- Playing in the long shadow of Butkus never easy, but doug brought it game and year after year- deserves more credit than gets because of butkus

8. Wilbur Marshall- a complete Stud and fericous pass rusher- that if he had stayed instead of going to Washington , might have added to the bears LB Hall of famers

Honorable Mentions:

Playing with all these Hall of famers, some players got lost or only had a few good years, but desrve mention

Rosie Colvin- a perfect 3/4 OLB, who struggled against run but very good against pass, last LB with 10+ sacks on bears

Otis wilson- the "lunchpail" LB of the cast of charachters of the '85'ers, better than many give credit for

Originally Posted by GeorgiaJeff

Looks like I was wrong about "Moon" doing a separate list for fullbaclks. That's a shame because not putting Nagurski on the RB list is an egregious omission.

I don't particularly like this list either. I'd prefer to break the LB positons down to best 3 for middle, weakside (RLB) and strongside (LCB).

Using that format rather than lumping them all together I'd go...

Middle - Butkus, Urlacher, Singletary
Weakside - Marshall, Briggs, Larry Morris
Strongside - Otis Wilson, Joe Fortunato (5-time Pro Bowler & 3-time First-Team All-Pro), Doug Buffone

I'm not really sure where Connor fits in as far as linebackers. According to this he only played the linebacker position 3 years two at strongside and one at weakside...

http://www.pro-football-reference.co...C/ConnGe00.htm

dabears54, I'm surprised you'd neglect to mention Fortunato. Are you slipping?

Edit: Looking at the Bears' starting lineups from 1948-1955 (the years Connor played) it confirms he only played LB for three years (as a starter anyway). The body of work is not long enough for me to list him with the others above. He also started at DT one year. He started at LT from 1948-1953. LT is the position he should be discussed as to his place on the all-time depth chart.

Jeff there was no such thing as "linebacker" whn Conner played as to why not listed there- he stated it as a DT dropping back, and started the Linebacker poistion that then Bill george plyed next.. So he was still a Linebacker( just wasn;t called that in late40's and early 50's).

And good call on Fortunato, was deciding between him and buffone for that last spot( and forgot after to not put him on the honorable mention list.. my bad), he ef deserves mentioning

During his eight years in Chicago, George Connor gained the rare distinction of earning all-NFL honors at three different positions-offensive tackle, defensive tackle, and linebacker. Although George is remembered as one of the finest of the post-World War II tackles, it was as a linebacker that he enjoyed his greatest stardom in pro football. He was one of the first to become a regular linebacker and he still ranks as one of the very best!

Necessity is the mother of invention, so the saying goes, and it was sheer necessity that caused George to become a linebacker in the first place.

Back in 1949, the Philadelphia Eagles were tearing up the NFL. The week before the Bears were to play the high-flying Eagles, Head Coach George Halas and his assistant, Hunk Anderson, were devising some desperate measures to slow the Philadelphia offense.

Of particular concern was an end sweep that saw fullback Joe Muha and the two guards lead bulldozing Steve Van Buren around the end. Van Buren was a terror even without interference but with such an effective convoy out in front, he was virtually unstoppable.

Finally Anderson had a thought: "Why don't we put in a big man like Connor back as linebacker? They won't be able to run over him like they do the lighter guys. Besides he's one of our most aggressive guys and that's the best kind to play linebacker."

The experiment worked. Connor played a major role in blunting the Philadelphia attack. The Bears defeated the Eagles, 38-21, for the only loss Philadelphia suffered in an otherwise perfect season.

From that moment on, George Connor was a linebacker. From that moment on, the prototype for the ideal NFL linebacker had been established-he should be big, fast, and mobile, like George Connor!

But all of this did not make George Connor a one-way specialist. He continued to play offensive tackle and, in both 1951 and 1952, he earned all-NFL honors on both the offensive and defensive units, a distinction which Connor today recalls as his biggest thrill in pro football.

George was always one of the smartest men on the field whenever and wherever he played. He seemingly knew instinctively about keys-the tips that the movement of certain offensive players will provide to the alert defender to tell a split-second ahead of time the way a play is going-long before keys became the vogue.

Originally Posted by dabears54

Think Mullin hit Most of the spots( though disagree briggs a pass rushing threat), while some harp on the lack of qb success, here is a position where the Bears BY FAR THE BEST IN NFL HISTORY, and its not even close, most teams do not have 1 HOF LB, much less 4( and soon to be 5 or 6), which makes it the most remarkable run at any position in NFL history, of the 1950's to now almost always having a HOF linebacker playing for the bears "D":

1. Butkus- the Most Feared "D" man of all time

2. Urlacher- the size/speed/strength off the Charts at combine( from a 3rd-4th rounder to top 10 after) and hasn't dissapointed since

3. Tie Bill George and george conner- While Bill george gets the credit for the MLB spot invention, Conner was already doing it in some formations for the bears in early 1950's.. and like Ulracher just a freak physical specimen,the "adonis of football" at the time, and gets extra bonus points for being a 2 way player and probowl Tackle also.

5. Samurai singletary- The beast and heart of the 1980's "D", and on any other team would be the top or top 2 LB's in their history

6. Lance briggs- just chugging along putting up the numbers and solid play, which should never get overlooked

7. Doug Buffone- Playing in the long shadow of Butkus never easy, but doug brought it game and year after year- deserves more credit than gets because of butkus

8. Wilbur Marshall- a complete Stud and fericous pass rusher- that if he had stayed instead of going to Washington , might have added to the bears LB Hall of famers

Honorable Mentions:

Playing with all these Hall of famers, some players got lost or only had a few good years, but desrve mention

Rosie Colvin- a perfect 3/4 OLB, who struggled against run but very good against pass, last LB with 10+ sacks on bears

Otis wilson- the "lunchpail" LB of the cast of charachters of the '85'ers, better than many give credit for

Think this is about right. Most seem to give too much or too little credit to Lance. I don't think he's a top 5 talent, a lot of what he gets to do is b/c of Urlacher, and the time teams spend on him; but he's still pretty damn good, might be one of the best lb combo's the Bears have ever seen.

Originally Posted by Riczaj01

Think this is about right. Most seem to give too much or too little credit to Lance. I don't think he's a top 5 talent, a lot of what he gets to do is b/c of Urlacher, and the time teams spend on him; but he's still pretty damn good, might be one of the best lb combo's the Bears have ever seen.

yeah, worry about briggs when comes to hall of fame- in today's "highlight media', bcuase he Does't gets sacks, and just does his job and a tackling machine, he will get lost. Its one of my pet peeves at most of the national media, to so focus on sacks, over proper linebacking position and tackling, and ignore some of these OLB's, that run past the play, get burned in coverage( Briggs very good in coverage), and get killed in he run game, but because gets sacks( merriman,kevin greene etc), they are hyped as great linebackers and many times not, and better positional linebackers and tackling machines like Briggs and london fletcher, get overlooked and never should

Originally Posted by dabears54

During his eight years in Chicago, George Connor gained the rare distinction of earning all-NFL honors at three different positions-offensive tackle, defensive tackle, and linebacker. Although George is remembered as one of the finest of the post-World War II tackles, it was as a linebacker that he enjoyed his greatest stardom in pro football. He was one of the first to become a regular linebacker and he still ranks as one of the very best! Necessity is the mother of invention, so the saying goes, and it was sheer necessity that caused George to become a linebacker in the first place.

Back in 1949, the Philadelphia Eagles were tearing up the NFL. The week before the Bears were to play the high-flying Eagles, Head Coach George Halas and his assistant, Hunk Anderson, were devising some desperate measures to slow the Philadelphia offense.

Of particular concern was an end sweep that saw fullback Joe Muha and the two guards lead bulldozing Steve Van Buren around the end. Van Buren was a terror even without interference but with such an effective convoy out in front, he was virtually unstoppable.

Finally Anderson had a thought: "Why don't we put in a big man like Connor back as linebacker? They won't be able to run over him like they do the lighter guys. Besides he's one of our most aggressive guys and that's the best kind to play linebacker."

The experiment worked. Connor played a major role in blunting the Philadelphia attack. The Bears defeated the Eagles, 38-21, for the only loss Philadelphia suffered in an otherwise perfect season.

From that moment on, George Connor was a linebacker. From that moment on, the prototype for the ideal NFL linebacker had been established-he should be big, fast, and mobile, like George Connor!

But all of this did not make George Connor a one-way specialist. He continued to play offensive tackle and, in both 1951 and 1952, he earned all-NFL honors on both the offensive and defensive units, a distinction which Connor today recalls as his biggest thrill in pro football.

George was always one of the smartest men on the field whenever and wherever he played. He seemingly knew instinctively about keys-the tips that the movement of certain offensive players will provide to the alert defender to tell a split-second ahead of time the way a play is going-long before keys became the vogue.

The All-Pro honor for LB was just one time I beleive.

The reference for the Bears' starting lineups I looked at did list linebackers on defense. As you know back then the defenses were 5-2.

I'm not saying Connors wasn't great as a LB, I'm just saying I think of him more as a LT. From 1950 on pro-football-reference.com lists the starting O and D for all teams. Connor was listed as a starting DT once, LLB twice and RLB once from 1950-1955.

Originally Posted by GeorgiaJeff

The All-Pro honor for LB was just one time I beleive.

The reference for the Bears' starting lineups I looked at did list linebackers on defense. As you know back then the defenses were 5-2.

I'm not saying Connors wasn't great as a LB, I'm just saying I think of him more as a LT. From 1950 on pro-football-reference.com lists the starting O and D for all teams. Connor was listed as a starting DT once, LLB twice and RLB once from 1950-1955.

and the above article was showing despite not calling it "linebaker" even in 1949 conner was playing 'linebacker", despite being listed as a DT in refereence sites:

[quote]Back in 1949the Philadelphia Eagles were tearing up the NFL. The week before the Bears were to play the high-flying Eagles, Head Coach George Halas and his assistant, Hunk Anderson, were devising some desperate measures to slow the Philadelphia offense.

Of particular concern was an end sweep that saw fullback Joe Muha and the two guards lead bulldozing Steve Van Buren around the end. Van Buren was a terror even without interference but with such an effective convoy out in front, he was virtually unstoppable.

Finally Anderson had a thought: "Why don't we put in a big man like Connor back as linebacker? They won't be able to run over him like they do the lighter guys. Besides he's one of our most aggressive guys and that's the best kind to play linebacker."