Believe it or not, the Chicago Bears have been better than average at drafting since 1996

The Washington Post has attempted to gauge the success rate of NFL team's drafting prowess. They, along with some help, created a formula looking at each draft pick for the last 20 years and are displaying the data for all 32 teams in a really interesting, ingenious and informative interactive. I know what you're thinking, 'That's a lot of big "i" words.'

But you should also be thinking, 'I wonder where the Chicago Bears ranked.'

Well, if you were paying attention to the title above, you'd at least know that the Bears checked in above average.

Better than average is surprising for a franchise littered with names like Enis, McNown, Terrell and Carimi, but that just goes to show you that every team has it's own fair share of busts.

Here are the names of the executives tasked with drafting for the Bears during the last 20 years, Mark Hatley, Jerry Angelo, Phil Emery and Ryan Pace.

You can click here for the Bears page of the interactive (do it, it's neat-o), but here are a few highlights.

The "draft value" metric they used was created by the fellas over at ProFootballReference.com, a favorite website of mine that I visit almost daily.

They have the Bears at 15th overall at 12.73. The Pittsburgh Steelers have been the best drafting team with a 16.37 and the Cleveland Browns the worst at 9.55.

You would think that drafting high woldl give you a better shot at getting good players, but talent evaluation trumps draft position.  The Steelers have 12 post season appearances, and two Super Bowl wins, in the last 20 years, yet they are still able to find gems on draft day. Their average draft position has been 21st, while the hapless Browns' average draft position has been 11th.

The Bears average draft position has been 15th, and they had Chicago's best draft pick as Brian Urlacher in 2000 and their biggest bust was Marc Colombo from the 2002 draft class.

They call the Bears' 2000 class as their best prior to 2012. For a reminder, here are those players plucked by then Vice President of Personnel, Mark Hatley.

1st: Brian Urlacher - LB
2nd: Mike Brown - S
3rd: Dez White - WR
3rd: Dustin Lyman - TE
4th: Reggie Austin - DB
6th: Frank Murphy - WR
6th: Paul Edinger - K
7th: James Cotton - LB
7th; Michael Green - DB

They even list some of the players the Bears left on the table when the Bears picked up some busts through the years. Did you realize the Bears took Michael Haynes at 14 in 2003 with Calvin Pace, Robert Mathis and Osi Umenyiora still on the board?

Did you know that 27 of the Bears draft picks were either immediately traded or didn't make the cut?

They have the Bears down for 51 draft picks in the Useless category, 7 in the Great and 2 in the Legendary category.

Did you know that the most picked position by the Bears in the last 20 years was wide receiver with 24 different players selected?

The next most is safety with 17, followed by cornerback and defensive tackle at 16 apiece.

Check out the interactive and let us know what catches your eye.