Meet the next contender for the best 21st century Bears team When Jacob Infante proposed the idea of an 8-team fantasy draft featuring the best Chicago Bears of the 2000s, I was intrigued. What would be the best strategy to draft? Just how deep could you build a team? There were so many questions that I wanted to answer, so I signed up. I drew the fourth overall selection. I figured Jay Cutler and Brian Urlacher would be gone for certain, but I wasn’t sure about the third selection. I thought it was going to be Khalil Mack, but Devin Hester earned the nod and I was on the clock with the fourth selection. I certainly thought about Mack, but I determined that the best strategy was going to be to load up on offensive weapons and build from there. Once Cutler was off the board, other than the possibility of Caleb Williams (I was thinking round three if he made it that far, he didn’t make it out of round one), I didn’t think there was going to be too much of a difference at quarterback so I decided to wait and load up on offense. I selected Brandon Marshall with my first pick, came back around grabbed DJ Moore, and then selected Greg Olsen in round three. There wasn’t going to be another team that was going to be able to compete with my trio of receiving weapons so I felt good there. There was a focus by other teams to grab several Lovie Smith-era defenders and some from the 2018 team, which meant the defenders from the current Matt Eberflus defense were ignored early on. I pounced and was able to nab Montez Sweat, Jaylon Johnson, and Kyler Gordon. We know Eberflus loves a dominant defensive tackle, so I scooped up Ted Washington as well. Because Olin Kreutz manned the center position for so long, the center position was, by far, the weakest of any position (even quarterback!), so I selected Cody Whitehair early as well to make sure I had a strong lineman in the middle. I was thrilled with how my offense looks and I’m confident that, not only is it the strongest unit of the 8 teams, but it’s comfortably better than even the second-best offensive team. My offensive line from left to right is Jason Peters, James Daniels, Whitehair, Chris Villarrial, and Blake Brockermeyer (who I grabbed in the second to last round and is highway robbery that he wasn’t taken sooner). Jim Miller quarterbacks my squad with the aforementioned Moore, Marshall, and Olsen. I also grabbed Gerald Everett to rotate in and I grabbed two quality backs in David Montgomery and Khalil Herbert. There is no weakness on this offense. My unit has the strongest group of wide receivers, running backs, and tight ends and has one of, if not the best, offensive lines of the draft. On special teams, we needed one “special-teamer” and either a kicker or a punter. I grabbed the Pin Ball Wizard himself, Tory Taylor, and Chicago Bears special teams legend, long snapper Patrick Mannelly. I think that duo can compete with any duo that doesn’t feature Devin Hester. Defensively, despite going offense early, my defense can go toe-to-toe with any of these other teams. Up front, we have Sweat and Leonard Floyd at defensive end, Washington and Gervon Dexter in the middle, and we also grabbed a great value with Roy Robertson-Harris in round 21. At linebacker, we may not have the star power of Urlacher or Lance Briggs, but I’ll line up with TJ Edwards, Jack Sanborn, and Alec Ogletree any day of the week and be confident in that trio. In the secondary, I already mentioned the cornerback duo of Johnson and Gordon, which is as strong as any pair, but the position group that didn’t fall right to me was safety. I had a plan. I was always a big fan of Tony Parrish and thought he would slide because of his short time with the team, but he was scooped up earlier than expected. I pivoted to Kevin Byard but he went just a few picks before I was planning on grabbing him. Even my plan to grab Mike Green backfired. So it was late in the draft and I didn’t have any safeties. I selected Adam Archuleta as my first safety and am comfortable that he can get the job done. I needed a safety for my final selection, Chris Conte was available, and admittedly, he was the best safety on the board. He was actually a decent safety while he was here, but between the Aaron Rodgers to Randall Cobb debacle, Conte’s comments after he left Chicago for Tampa and the Bucs beat the Bears and after the game he basically told the city of Chicago to f**k off, he was dead to me and I wasn’t about to put him on my roster. I rounded out my team with Deon Bush. This team is ready to win the Best of the 2000s Bears championship. The offense is the best in the league. The defensive line is arguably the best in the league and the cornerbacks can also make that argument. The linebackers are solid and while the safeties are the weakest part of the team, there is plenty of strength through the rest of the defense to protect them from being exposed. Not to mention, with Mannelly snapping to Taylor, my opponents will be regularly starting their drives inside their own 20, and with this group of quarterbacks, let’s be honest, our loaded offense will be getting the ball back at midfield regularly. Which team is the strongest? Humility may be the route that some take, but that was never a strength of our first-round pick, Brandon Marshall, so why should we start now? The best team from the draft is definitely mine. In the end, the Z-Bombs final roster looked like this: QB: Jim MillerRB: David Montgomery
RB: Khalil Herbert
WR: Brandon Marshall
WR: DJ Moore
TE: Greg Olsen
TE: Gerald Everett
LT: Jason Peters
LG: James Daniels
C: Cody Whitehair
RG: Chris Villarial
RT: Blake Brockermeyer
DE: Montez Sweat
DT: Ted Washington
DT: Gervon Dexter
DE: Leonard Floyd
DL: Roy Robertson-Harris
LB: TJ Edwards
LB: Jack Sanborn
LB: Alec Ogeltree
CB: Jaylon Johnson
CB: Kyler Gordon
S: Adam Archuletta
S: Deon Bush
K/P: Tory Taylor
ST: Patrick Mannelly Here’s a link to the full results of our draft.
https://www.windycitygridiron.com/2024/ ... jim-miller
