With 37 players already having received their gold jacket and bronze bust, the Chicago Bears have more players enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame than any other franchise in the NFL, and when the 2026 Hall of Fame class is eventually announced next February, it’s possible more former Bears could soon be making the trip to Canton.
Of the 128 modern-era nominees that were announced on September 24, 12 players who formerly donned a Chicago Bears uniform at one point in the NFL career made the list. Today, we’ll look at each of those 12 players and evaluate who has the best chance of making the cut, but first, a PSA to everyone who put together this list of 128 players…
Y’all forgot about Matt Forte, didn’t you? Sheesh! Imagine your embarrassment.
I’ll now depart my soapbox and get down to business.
Pro Football Hall of Fame Long Shots
In addition to offensive linemen Ruben Brown and Josh Sitton, plus defensive lineman Ted Washington and Jay Ratliff, the following five players who made the list of 128 nominees can at best be considered long shots to actually make the 2026 Hall of Fame class.
Thomas Jones
Bears Career Numbers: 3 seasons, 850 rush attempts, 3,493 rushing yards, 22 rushing touchdowns, 118 receptions, 724 receiving yards
NFL Career Numbers: 12 seasons, 2,678 rush attempts, 10,591 rushing yards, 68 rushing touchdowns, 308 receptions, 2,023 receiving yards, 3 receiving touchdowns
Career Accolades: 1-time Pro Bowl, 27th all-time in rushing yards, 38th all-time in rushing touchdowns
Brandon Marshall
Bears Career Numbers: 3 seasons, 279 receptions, 3,524 receiving yards, 31 receiving touchdowns
NFL Career Numbers: 13 seasons, 970 receptions, 12,351 receiving yards, 83 receiving touchdowns
Career Accolades: 1-time All-Pro, 6-time Pro Bowl, 19th all-time in receptions, 25th all-time in receiving yards, 27th all-time in receiving touchdowns
Muhsin Muhammad
Bears Career Numbers: 3 seasons, 164 receptions, 2,183 receiving yards, 12 receiving touchdowns
NFL Career Numbers: 14 seasons, 860 receptions, 11,438 receiving yards, 62 receiving touchdowns
Career Accolades: 1-time All-Pro, 2-time Pro Bowl, 32nd all-time in receptions, 37th all-time in receiving yards, 87th all-time in receiving touchdowns
Greg Olsen
Bears Career Numbers: 4 seasons, 194 receptions, 1,981 receiving yards, 20 receiving touchdowns
NFL Career Numbers: 14 seasons, 742 receptions, 8,683 receiving yards, 60 receiving touchdowns
Career Accolades: 3-time Pro Bowl, 52nd all-time in receptions, 89th all-time in receiving yards, 97th all-time in receiving touchdowns
Brandon Lloyd
Bears Career Numbers: 1 season, 26 receptions, 364 receiving yards, 2 receiving touchdowns
NFL Career Numbers: 11 seasons, 399 receptions, 5,989 receiving yards, 36 receiving touchdowns
Career Accolades: 1-time Pro Bowl
With all due respect to Brandon Lloyd, a nice player who made some incredible highlight-worthy catches throughout his 11-year career, how the heck did he make this list and Matt Forte didn’t? How?!
Bears Who Deserve to be Hall of Fame Bound
With nine players discussed already, that leaves three names that should get legitimate Hall of Fame consideration through each round of voting.
Charles Tillman
Bears Career Numbers: 12 seasons, 875 tackles, 36 interceptions, 42 forced fumbles, 10 fumble recoveries, 9 defensive touchdowns
NFL Career Numbers: 13 seasons, 930 tackles, 38 interceptions, 44 forced fumbles, 11 fumble recoveries, 9 defensive touchdowns
Career Accolades: 1-time All-Pro, 2-time Pro Bowl, 23rd all-time in non-offensive touchdowns, 91st all-time in interceptions, 6th all-time in forced fumbles, 17th all-time in passes defended
Lance Briggs
Bears/NFL Career Numbers: 12 seasons, 1,181 tackles, 97 tackles for loss, 15 sacks, 16 interceptions, 19 forced fumbles, 7 fumble recoveries, 6 defensive touchdowns
Career Accolades: 3-time All-Pro, 7-time Pro Bowl, 40th all-time in tackles, 56th all-time in tackles for loss, 90th all-time in forced fumbles,
Olin Kreutz
Career Accolades: 2-time All-Pro, 6-time Pro Bowl, member of Pro Football Hall of Fame All-2000s Team
Charles Tillman, Lance Briggs and Olin Kreutz have all gone through the Hall of Fame voting process in the past, and in each instance, they’ve come up short of making the final cut. Perhaps it’s my bias shining through, but it feels to me like each of these three have clear-cut cases for Canton.
Lance Briggs, along with Brian Urlacher, made up one of the defining linebacker duos of the 2000s, and he was arguably even better than Urlacher for the last few years of their run as teammates. You talk about the lineage of Chicago Bears linebackers, dating back to the likes of Bill George, Bulldog Turner and Dick Butkus, and Lance Briggs has to be mentioned.
Remember when the Bears offensive line could actually be considered reliable? Well if you don’t, it’s because the last time that was the case, Kreutz was making sixth straight Pro Bowl appearance, and that was all the way back in 2006.
In my opinion, Charles Tillman’s is the easiest to make. He may be the most underrated and underappreciated NFL player of the century, and I only need to make one statement to prove that… he’s the namesake of the Peanut Punch, a tactic used by defenders on a regular basis in the NFL nowadays, so much so that it’s taught by defensive backs coaches. But all these years later, nobody has perfected the Peanut Punch to the degree that Charles Tillman did.
Just a general rule of thumb: if you have an impact play named after you, you probably deserve to be in the Hall of Fame.
