Brian Urlacher's poignant view on several former teammates

“I was very fortunate because I got to practice against the best center in the league every single day in practice. It benefited my career. It benefited our defense’s playing ability. It drives me crazy. Whenever I get a chance to talk about it, I bring up Olin, because in my mind, he’s the one guy who needs to be in there.”

Kreutz's credentials are impressive and he deserves more consideration than he has had considering he first qualified for election in 2017.

Making six straight Pro Bowls is the type of thing at always helps with a position where statistics are not always readily available.

Same position, same team, seven straight Pro Bowls but also four All-Pro designations—Jay Hilgenberg definitely meets qualifcations from the 1980s era.

The lack of more than two Pro Bowls is often cited as a reason Tillman hasn't made it, although he definitely has statistics on his side with 44 forced fumbles, 11 recoveries, 38 interceptions, eight TD returns on interceptions and one on a fumble return. And he did make consecutive Pro Bowls with one first-team All-Pro designation.

Urlacher's promotion was for City Cruises' A Night with Chicago Football Conference Champions: Brian Urlacher, Rex Grossman and Alex Brown. The three 2006 players will be together to tell stories on the cruise about the Super Bowl season.

"I haven't seen Rex in 15 years so I'm excited to see him...maybe 12 years," Urlacher told Rahimi & Harris.

It might make for an even more interesting situation considering what Urlacher said on the Jack Vita Show podcast this past spring when asked to name the best Bears QB of this millennium.

"Kyle Orton," was Urlacher's answer. "He's the best one I played with. I'm not a numbers guy. I'm a leadership guy.

"Kyle, to me, I still don't know why we traded him. I'm sure we could have got Jay and just traded two first-round picks and kept Kyle as the backup for those games when Jay wasn't there."

They traded Orton to Denver with two first-round picks and a third-rounder for Cutler, and Orton then became Denver's starter. With the Bears, Orton was 21-12 as a starter and Cutler was 17-20 in his first three years, 51-51 for his entire time as Bears starter.

"Jay was great," Urlacher said. "Jay was the most talented quarterback I played with. That dude could make every throw. He was athletic. Man. He was really talented.

"But Kyle, I think I played with Kyle two or three years, I just liked the way he led our team. The offensive linemen respected him. The defense respected him, and our coaches. "

Urlacher didn't even mention Grossman in that reference.

So count Urlacher in the group who thought Orton was better than the QB who quarterbacked the Bears to Super Bowl XLI, and apparently better than the one who had them within one win of a return to the Super Bowl in 2010.

It should make for an interesting cruise.