The Bears are rolling, and much has been made about how the offense has taken a massive step forward. It’s hard to look at this success without acknowledging the contributions of their rookie class.
For
your review:
- Round 1, Pick 10: TE Colston Loveland | 48 receptions, 622 yards, 5 TDs
- Round 2, Pick 39: WR Luther Burden | 44 receptions, 617 yards, 2 TDs
- Round 2, Pick 56: OT Ozzy Trapilo | 14 G, 6 Starts, Current starting LT
- Round 2, Pick 62: DT Shemar Turner | 5 G, 6 tackles, 2 TFL (Season endling ACL tear)
- Round 4, Pick 132: LB Ruben Hyppolite | 7 G, 6 tackles
- Round 5, Pick 148: CB Zah Frazier | Out for season due to personal reasons
- Round 6, Pick 195: OL Luke Newman | 9 G
- Round 7, Pick 233: RB Kyle Monangai | 163 attempts, 769 yards, 5 TDs, 17 receptions, 149 yards
This class is not without initial misses, but you can say that about any class. However, the four main contributors in Loveland, Burden, Trapilo, and Monangai have completely reshaped the future of this Bears offense by giving them a projected starter with Pro Bowl potential at four different positions.
Looking at the history of the Bears draft, it’s hard to find an instance where you had this much success, especially out of the gate and especially in recent years.
Which got me thinking – where does this draft class currently rank all-time, and where do you think it will eventually rank?
Let’s get one thing straight before twenty people do it for me in the comments…it is impossible to adequately evaluate this draft class, 16 games into their careers, against other draft classes that have been retired for years (and decades).
So please, sort this into the “fun banter” category and not the “Mongo Peanut is a knucklehead” category.
Now — what do I think? I think that as it currently stands, this draft class has already accomplished more than draft classes like the Gabe Carimi/Stephen Paea/Chris Conte draft of 2011 or the Rashaan Salaam/Pat Riley/Sean Harris draft of 1995 (though Punter Todd Sauerbrun had a nice career). Still, the Bears can already hang their hat on this draft class not being considered a bust.
So where does it stand right now? I would say that it’s probably somewhere in the top 30-35 draft classes in the Bears history if you were to stop play right now. They don’t yet have a Harlon Hill, Lance Briggs, or Mike Singletary to claim, so it’s hard to argue that they can sniff the top ten at the moment, and that’s fine — they have long careers left.
Still, where do we think they will eventually rank all-time? Personally, I think they have the makings of a top 8 draft class all-time. That might seem absurd given how early into their careers we are, but I think that both Loveland and Burden have shown the skills to be top talents at their respective positions worth of Pro Bowl and All-Pro honors. Add in plus starters like Trapilo and Monangai, and there are only a few draft classes that can compete with that many hits.
It’s impossible to project this class to eclipse the 1983 Jimbo Covert/Richard Dent/Willie Gault/Tom Thayer class which will remain untouched likely for a very long time. The same could be said for the 1965 class that included Gale Sayers and Dick Butkus or the 1981 class that included Keith Van Horne and Mike Singletary. Additionally, it would be premature to call any of these guys HOF worthy, so classes like 1975 with Walter Payton, 1939’s draft class with Sid Luckman, and 2000 with Brian Urlacher (and Mike Brown) would also be tough to project.
However, this draft class could very well shape up to be similar to that of the 2003 draft that saw the Bears net multiple Pro Bowl level talents in Lance Briggs and Charles Tillman. Sprinkle in other contributors like Bobby Wade, Justin Gage, and Rex Grossman and this feels like a pretty reasonable comparison. We can only hope that none of them flare out the way that Michael Haynes did.
So what do you think? Where does the 2025 Bears draft class rank all-time? Sound off in the comments!
