Best NFL Teams at Drafting Linebackers

• Von Miller
• Randy Gradishar
• Karl Mcklenburg
• Al Wilson

Miller is already the best linebacker in franchise history. We say already, but he just finished his 14th NFL season. The first 10 years were spent in Denver where he was a Pro Bowler every season. Gradishar played less than a decade, but is still a Hall of Famer with seven Pro Bowl seasons. Mecklenburg is in the conversation for best linebacker not in the Hall, what with three All-Pro seasons over his 11 years. And Wilson made five Pro Bowls in his eight seasons, retiring early in large part due to a neck injury.

4. New York Giants

• Lawrence Taylor
• Harry Carson
• Sam Huff
• Jessie Armsread

If you want to call Taylor the best linebacker to play the game, be our guest. He’s certainly the best pass-rushing linebacker to ever play the game. Carson made the Hall of Fame playing his entire 13-year career with the Giants. Huff gives the franchise three Hall-of-Fame linebackers, earning his stripes in the 1950s and '60s. And Armstead, while not a Hall of Famer, made five Pro Bowls in his nine seasons in New York.

3. Kansas City Chiefs

• Derrick Thomas
• Bobby Bell
• Willie Lanier
• Derrick Johnson

Thomas is a Hall of Famer with two All-Pro seasons, nine Pro Bowls, and was named to the All-90s team. He died at age 33 in a car wreck following his 11th NFL season. Bell made the Pro Bowl every year from 1964 to 1972 and capped his career with a Hall of Fame induction. Lanier, too, is a Hall member, joining Bell in the Pro Bowl on the same defense, making it every year from 1968 to 1975. Johnson didn’t make his first Pro Bowl until he was 29, but ultimately made four of them and played 13 of his 14 seasons with the Chiefs.

2. Pittsburgh Steelers

• Jack Lambert
• T.J. Watt
• Jack Ham
• Andy Russell

Well, if the Steelers are second, you know who’s first. It was always going to be one or the other. While Lambert and Ham are the team’s only two Hall of Famers, Watt is almost certainly going to make it, and Russell made seven Pro Bowls in the 1960s and '70s. Apologies to Hardy Nickerson, Greg Lloyd, and Joey Porter, too, who combined for another six Pro Bowls between them, but couldn’t crack the franchise’s Mount Rushmore.

1. Chicago Bears

• Dick Butkus
• Mike Singletary
• Brian Urlacher
• Bill George

The Bears actually have five linebackers in the Hall of Fame. Chuck Howley, who played from 1958 to 1973, was left off this list. He’d make all four of the others. But beating out Butkus, Singletary, Urlacher, and George is a nearly impossible task. Among the four of them, they have 24 All-Pro seasons and 34 Pro Bowls. As good as the Steelers are, the Bears are a clear top choice.