Drafted: Round 1 (No. 9 overall), 2000.

A top-10 pick as a steal? Hear us out.

Urlacher remains the only current Hall of Famer from the 2000 draft class, although Tom Brady will join him the moment he’s eligible. Outside of those two, however, it’s a relatively star-less group. Of the eight players taken ahead of Urlacher, some became solid to good players and some were busts. If we did a re-draft of this class today, Brady would go first overall, and I think there’s a strong case to put Urlacher No. 2.

Some had their doubts about Urlacher, a college safety for a 4-7 New Mexico team in the Mountain West Conference, and he was not an immediate hit, coming off the bench his first two pro games. But from that point on, he looked like nothing short of a star. Urlacher was the Defensive Rookie of the Year, was named a first-team All-Pro four times, won the 2005 Defensive Player of the Year award and also led the Bears to Super Bowl XLI. 

Even with Urlacher missing big chunks of the 2004 and 2009 seasons, there was no player in the league who manned the middle linebacker spot as well as he did for more than a decade after his arrival. And he did it all in Chicago, where expectations for the position are plenty high.