FOX Sports is running a list for each team listing their best draft pick, their best value pick and their worst pick. I imagine none of these comes as any surprise to any of you.
Best overall pick: RB Walter Payton, Round 1, Pick 4, 1975
Sometimes, skill position draft picks gets a little more credit than they should because of their proximity to the ball. Walter Payton is not one of those skill position draft picks. Here's a question for Bears fans: How many years would Brian Urlacher have to play at his current level to surpass Payton? Five? 10? 50?
Best value pick: DE Richard Dent, Round 8, Pick 203, 1983
I would call selecting a borderline Hall of Famer in a round that doesn't even exist nowadays a good pick, wouldn't you? Sadly, Dent only mustered 137.5 sacks, not even coming close to his overall pick number.
Worst pick: RB Curtis Enis, Round 1, Pick 5, 1998
Too early for Rex Grossman? I was trying to decide between Enis, Rashaan Salaam, Cade McNown, David "BD" Terrell, and Anthony Thomas for a while and then I realized that the Bears should probably stop taking skill position players early in drafts. While Salaam's failure begat the decision to take Enis, whose failure begat the decision to take Thomas, whose failure begat the decision to take Cedric Benson, which would theoretically figure that Rashaan Salaam cost the Bears four first round picks, Salaam at least had one good season; two, if you count the XFL. None of the other guys, though, went crazy at their own wedding or contributed as little as Enis did.