Brian Urlacher, the middle linebacker who anchored the Bears’ defense for more than a decade and made eight Pro Bowls in his 13 NFL seasons, will get a bust in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Selection committee members voted him into the Hall in the class of 2018, the Hall of Fame announced Saturday.
Brian Urlacher’s incredible consistency and versatility made him a Hall of Famer
Urlacher was both a throwback and a sign of linebackers to come.
Photo by Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images
Urlacher was notable for his consistency, durability, and availability to fill different roles while patrolling the middle of the field in Chicago. He missed 26 games during his career, including 15 in the 2009 season. But he played all 16 games 10 times and filled the stat sheet year after year while playing one of the game’s most demanding positions. All of those came with one franchise.
His unique skill set keyed several elite Bears defenses, including two that finished No. 1 in the league in scoring. He had 1,229 tackles, 41 1⁄2 sacks, 78 passes defensed, 22 interceptions, 15 fumble recoveries, and 12 forced fumbles in his 182 appearances.
The Bears drafted him with the ninth overall pick in the 2000 draft. He was the second linebacker taken, following LaVar Arrington’s selection by Washington at No. 2.
In some ways, Urlacher was like the most feared linebackers of the past.
At 6’4 and about 260 pounds, he had a prototypical middle linebacker’s body. He was a brutal hitter and a nightmare for opposing running games with the ability to fill a gap quickly and viciously. His thick build and ability to destroy ball carriers were similar to Ray Lewis, or to go back to a past era for his own team, Dick Butkus.
Urlacher spent years at the top of anyone who watched the NFL’s “I would not like to get hit by that guy” list. He was a ferocious player, and he regularly forced offenses to think again and again about throwing short routes over the middle. If they did, there was a good chance Urlacher would be around to punish the intended receiver.
Urlacher was ahead of his time as an elite coverage backer.
Linebackers covering in the passing game is nothing new. But Urlacher made it an art form and became synonymous with the middle linebacker position in the “Tampa 2,” a scheme that took hold in the NFL when Pittsburgh’s Steel Curtain defenses relied on it in the 1970s. Its popularity around the league later grew under coaches Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith, who was Urlacher’s head coach for most of his time in Chicago.
The Tampa 2 asks the world of a middle linebacker. At the snap, he needs to decide whether a play is a run or a pass. If it’s a pass, he needs to drop into deep coverage up the middle of the field while his defenses’s safeties and corners guard the perimeter. He’s either a critical run stopper or responsible for an entire sector of the field on every play. It requires a player who’s as athletic as he is physically imposing. Urlacher filled the role perfectly and changed the Bears’ character for a generation.
As college-style spread offenses have proliferated in the NFL, more and more teams have come to rely on field-roaming middle linebackers who thrive in coverage. Urlacher was that player, and he was also a dominant presence at the line of scrimmage. He was the total package — a dream for a defensive coordinator and a nightmare for his offensive counterpart. Nobody did it better than Urlacher.
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