Men in the Middle—A Bears Tradition

By John Turney 

No team has had more of a legacy at middle linebacker than the Chicago Bears. They had Hall of Famer after Hall of Famer for seemingly decades.

But, who had the best year? How do they compare?

Taking the best season from each player, their "career year" if you will, and then ranking them is one way to illustrate how deep the Monsters of the Midway group is.

The list.

12. Bryan Cox, 1997—Cox would often play the edge on pass downs but was a MIKE in the base defense. He made 105 tackles and sacked the quarterback five times on a terrible defense.

11. Nicholas Morrow, 2022, 116 tackles, 9.0 tackles for loss and an interception - that was the stat line for the former Raider on one of worst defenses in the NFL.

10. Barry Minter, 1998—His totals included 104 tackles, a sack, an interception, and fumble recovery and two forced fumbles and had 8.5 tackles for loss.

He was more of a runner than a thumper, moved from weakside linebacker in 1997 to MIKE in 1998 to replace Cox and was counted on to slow the speedy backs in his division at the time - Barry Sanders, Warrick Dunn, Robert Smith and Dorsey Levens. His defensive coach said they gave up some power and gained some speed to be able to "get those kinds of backs on the ground."

Minter was no all-star but he silence critics who said, based on his previous limited experience there, he could not play in the middle. 

He could.

9. Tom Hicks, 1979— In 1977 the 6-4, 235-pound former University of Illinois split time with Rives, giving the Bears a bigger solution in the middle he held the position until Mike Singletary arrived in the Windy City. 

He endeared himself to Bears fans in 1977 in his first start when he had a big defensive contribution in the 10-7 game vs the Vikings- the one that Walter Payton ran for 275 yards in. 

In 1979 he had his best season - he picked off three passes, one a pick-six, made 74 tackles and forced a fumble on defense that allowed the sixth-fewest yards and was third in scoring defense and made the playoffs.

8. Don Rives, 1976—He was essentially the guy who took over from Dick Butkus to fill the middle linebacker position after backing up the legend for a couple of years. He split some time with Waymond Bryant and was hurt one year but in 1976 he finally got to start a full season. 

 He was a small guy, 6-2, 225 pounds and did okay. 

More than okay. 

In his career year, he made 165 tackles, was credited with five passes defensed and five tackles for loss, forced three fumbles, recovered two and had a pair of sacks and the bears defense went from 25th in points allowed to eighth.

7. Danny Trevathan, 2018—He made 102 tackles, and had two sacks, and two picks on what was arguably the NFL's best defense (fewest points allowed, third-fewest yards) run by Vic Fangio.

He was the NFC Defensive Player of the Week in week two.

Trevathan's career year started with an adjustment to his game being the first year of new rules on player safety installed by the NFL. Saying that he had to change his style, for among other reasons, "Shoot, I was on the film", referring to the training video that was shown to all the teams prior to the start of the 2018 season. 

He adjusted well. He was a vital cog in the NFL's top scoring defense and third overall defense.

6. Dante Jones, 1993—Jones stepped in for a retired Mike Singletary and promptly intercepted four passes made 130 tackles (7.0 for losses), was credited with eight passes defensed, forced a fumble, and recovered three - taking one of those to the house. 

He was surprisingly productive on a top-5 defense and he actually got one Defensive Player of the Year vote.

5. Roquan Smith, 2020—He was a first-team All-Pro (Sporting News) and a second-team pick by the AP. He totaled 139 tackles, four sacks, two interceptions, and 13.5 were for losses (per ESPN).

The next season had more tackles and was considered, but he was more "blue" in 2020. 

In 2020 Bears defensive coordinator Chuck Pagano said in a media availability, "This is just now just an ascending player who is going to do nothing but get better and grow mentally . . . His confidence is off the charts."

Pagano was right. 

4. Brian Urlacher, 2006—Urlacher had several interesting seasons. As a rookie he had 8.0 sacks, often playing right defensive end in nickel situations - playing in the middle on the early downs.

In 2002 he had a career-high in tackles with 151 and 16.5 of those were for losses, also a career-high. In 2007 he had six sacks and five interceptions - a rare feat. Few have had five or more of each in the same season. 

This was one of the hard decisions of this list with different aspects of seasons that marked a lot of diversity in his skill set - coverage, blitzing, getting into the backfield to stop running backs for losses. 

But in the end, his 2005 Defensive Player of the Year season combined the elements. The Bears' defense was first in scoring defense and second in fewest yards allowed, he had six sacks and played well in the playoff loss to the Panthers.

3. Bill George, 1961—The runner-up season was 1963 when he was the main man in an NFL Championship season. But in 1961 he had 11.5 sacks, a career-high in interceptions and was a consensus All-Pro.

In 1963 he played a more modern, disciplined type of middle linebacker under George Allen, not unlike you'd see with Dick Butkus or others of that era. Before that, with Clark Shaughnessy running the defense - it was less so.

Author T.J. Troup called some of what Shaughnessy did "mystical defenses" where people lined up in odd places. Hall of Fame defensive end Doug Atkins called them "rinky-dink" defenses.

You could see George do things that were a throwback from the 1950s and move up and put his hand in the dirt and play middle guard, right over the center. He could also line up there and then step back. He could be seen on the left edge, rushing opposite Doug Atkins once in a while.

Mostly though, he stuffed inside run plays and blitzed a lot. More than most of the MIKEs of the era or "MACs" as the Shaughnessy/Allen verbiage referred to it.

2. Mike Singletary, 1985—Samurai Mike won two Defensive Player of the Year Awards, one in 1985 and one in 1988. His numbers were virtually the same for both seasons so the edge goes to the year he led one of the best-ever defenses to a Super Bowl crown, crushing the New England Patriots.

His 1983 season was also in the running but the lack of team success eliminated it. That year he had personal highs in tackles (148), sacks (3.5), fumbles recovered (4) and tackles for loss (13.5).  His 1984 season was stellar as well - picking any one of those years would not be wrong but overall 1985 was his career year.

1. Dick Butkus, 1969—So many different seasons to choose from. 

His first year was a revelation. Told by George Halas to drop from his college weight of 260 pounds to 245 so he'd have "that extra step" the rookie from Illinois intercepted five passes and fell on seven opponents' fumbles for a total of twelve takeaways.

Looking at everything we chose 1969 as his top season. 

He was the NFL Defensive Player of the Year, the NFL Linebacker of the Year a unanimous All-Pro. He also got votes in the AP NFL MVP and UPI NFL Player of the Year awards

He was credited by Bears' coaches with 193 tackles, scored a safety, had two sacks, two picks and two fumble recoveries - all on a 1-13 team. 

The next year could have been the choice - it was nearly identical to 1969 in statistics and honors. There were additional years that would qualify as well - like the top names on this list they had far more than one great year. 

But in 1969 Butkus did more with less. 

The offense scored seven points or less six times, Gale Sayers was playing on gimpy knees but gutting it out, Brian Piccolo was diagnosed with cancer and didn't finish the season and on defense there were injuries on every level - line, linebackers and secondary. 

It was not pretty but Butlus was.

Butkus, after all these years, is still considered by some as the best middle linebacker to ever play the game and that is saying something given how much time has passed and how many great players have come and gone since the ruled Chicago.

And his best season was when he was a one-man team - in 1969.