Top 5 Chicago Bears’ Draft Busts since 2000

1. Cedric Benson, no.4 2005

Mary Langenfeld-USA TODAY Sports

This guy was just awful, but seeing what he did once he left the Bears makes it so much worse. Cedric Benson was taken with the aspirations of him being the next great Bears running back. Instead he is the worst bust of the 2000’s for the team.

Benson couldn’t get going with the Bears. In 2007 he got a chance to be the team’s full-time starter, and got through 11 games before an injury took him out. Before that, he had only 674 yards and four touchdowns. After gaining 101 yards week two against the Kansas City Chiefs, Benson couldn’t hit the century mark again for the season, including a week 10 matchup against the Seattle Seahawks in which he rushed for 65 yards in the first quarter alone. Benson was brutal to watch as a Bear.

Through three horrible seasons, Benson had 1,593 yards and 10 touchdowns. Which isn’t good by any stretch, but isn’t the worst. It definitely doesn’t live up to a top-five pick.

Then came his tenure with the Cincinnati Bengals. After a decent first season with the team, Benson exploded for three straight 1,000-yard seasons, including a career high 1,251 yards in 2009. Benson truly became a top 10 running back in the NFL during this time, and made every Bears fan cringe when he rushed for 189 yards against the team in a 45-10 Bengals’ win in 2009.

Then, even worse than those good years, the guy went and signed with the Green Bay Packers. What a horrible person.

Worst of all, this is the infamous Aaron Rodgers draft, in which the Bears could have finally gotten that franchise quarter back, but let Rodgers slip to the Packers.

When you look at the circumstances, Benson is one of the biggest busts the Bears have ever drafted, and is the worst of the millennium. Disagree? Let us know why in the comment section below.