Worst Bears Draft Picks of All-Time: OT Stan Thomas
By
Dane Noble@WindyCGridiron Apr 8, 2011, 2:48pm CDT
The
Chicago Bears selected OT Stan Thomas in the 1st round (#22 overall) of the 1991 NFL Draft, despite the kicking and screaming of head coach Mike Ditka. This draft pick could be best summed up by a quote from the coach, from an interview in 2006 on WSCR:
"Maybe we should have won another Super Bowl, but the problems started when we got an owner that wanted to make football decisions when he knew nothing about football. He told us who to sign, who to trade, and who to draft. Like drafting Stan Thomas. I wanted nothing to do with Stan Thomas, but the owner wanted him, and that's the way it was."
Many of you may remember Thomas and Ditka getting into a screaming match on the sideline during a 1992 televised Bears game. That was a perfect microcosm of Thomas' tenure in the Windy City.
Thomas played a grand total of 26 games over two season with the Bears, and was eventually traded after walking out of training camp in 1993 (he was angry over a demotion).
Here's a 15 year string of #1s.
1998 5 Curtis Enis RB Penn State
1999 12 Cade McNown QB UCLA [q]
2000 9 Brian Urlacher ^ LB New Mexico [e]
2001 8 David Terrell WR Michigan
2002 29 Marc Colombo T Boston College
2003 14 Michael Haynes DE Penn State [r]
22 Rex Grossman QB Florida
2004 14 Tommie Harris † DT Oklahoma
2005 4 Cedric Benson RB Texas
2006 No pick [k]
2007 31 Greg Olsen † TE Miami
2008 14 Chris Williams T Vanderbilt
2009 No pick [k] Cutler trade
2010 No pick
2011 29 Gabe Carimi T Wisconsin
2012 19 Shea McClellin DE Boise State
Urlacher
Harris was damaged but great for a bit
Rex was fun for a few
Olsen was traded right when he was about to shine.
The only 1st round player that we got more than a few positive productive years from over 15 years of 1st round picks was Urlacher and by association, Cutler. In 2006 we traded our 1st for Buffalo's 2nd and 3rd. Daniael Manning (significantly helped us lose a SB. Lovie's prodigy was 20 yards out of position on the 1st TD that was basically a Hail Mary. Made Lovie tell Rivera to change up to a softer coverage) and Dusty Dvoracek who had a career total of 31 tackles at DT.