2019 Team Records (Coach, Quarterback, Rushers, Receivers)

2019 Team Records (Coach, Quarterback, Rushers, Receivers) – Bears

by Chase Stuart on July 28, 2019

In this series, I will be looking at the history of coaches, quarterbacks, rushers, and receivers for all 32 franchises. For coaches and quarterbacks, I will be looking at how much their franchise’s career records (regular season only) would change if we removed the games with that person. For rushers and receivers, I will note how many times that player was the team’s leading rusher/receiver over the course of their time with that franchise (regular plus postseason).

Previous Teams:

AFC East: Dolphins, Bills, Jets, and Patriots
NFC East: Cowboys, Eagles, Giants, and Redskins
AFC North: Steelers, Browns, Ravens
NFC North: Packers, Vikings

When it comes to Chicago football, there’s only one Papa Bear. The Bears have been a successful franchise, winning 56.4% of games over the team’s nearly 100-year history. But under Halas, Chicago won 67.1% of their games; under all other head coaches, Chicago has won just 50.4% of games. Therefore, “games with Halas” has improved the team’s all-time winning percentage by a whopping 6.0%, the fourth most ever behind only Don Shula in Miami, Bill Belichick in New England, and Paul Brown in Cleveland. The second-most successful coach was Da Coach, Mike Ditka, who posted a 0.631 winning percentage over 168 games. On the flip side, John Fox and Dave Wannstedt have harmed the franchise’s winning percentage the most. The full results below:

Search:

Ovr Rk	Coach	G	W	L	T	HC Win %	FrG	FrW	FL	FrT	Fr W%	Win% w/o HC	Diff
4	George Halas	497	318	148	31	0.671	1386	761	583	42	0.564	0.504	6%
66	Mike Ditka	168	106	62	0	0.631	1386	761	583	42	0.564	0.555	0.9%
117	Ralph Jones	41	24	10	7	0.671	1386	761	583	42	0.564	0.561	0.3%
124	Hunk Anderson	36	23	11	2	0.667	1386	761	583	42	0.564	0.561	0.3%
133	Matt Nagy	16	12	4	0	0.75	1386	761	583	42	0.564	0.562	0.2%
163	Paddy Driscoll	24	14	9	1	0.604	1386	761	583	42	0.564	0.564	0.1%
200	Lovie Smith	144	81	63	0	0.563	1386	761	583	42	0.564	0.564	0%
312	Jack Pardee	42	20	22	0	0.476	1386	761	583	42	0.564	0.567	-0.3%
352	Marc Trestman	32	13	19	0	0.406	1386	761	583	42	0.564	0.568	-0.4%
371	Neill Armstrong	64	30	34	0	0.469	1386	761	583	42	0.564	0.569	-0.5%
438	Dick Jauron	80	35	45	0	0.438	1386	761	583	42	0.564	0.572	-0.8%
453	Jim Dooley	56	20	36	0	0.357	1386	761	583	42	0.564	0.573	-0.9%
464	Abe Gibron	42	11	30	1	0.274	1386	761	583	42	0.564	0.573	-0.9%
473	John Fox	48	14	34	0	0.292	1386	761	583	42	0.564	0.574	-1%
479	Dave Wannstedt	96	40	56	0	0.417	1386	761	583	42	0.564	0.575	-1.1%

For quarterback records, this data only goes back to 1950, so the best quarterback in franchise history isn’t included here. From 1950 to 2018, the Bears have a 0.506 winning percentage, but without Jim McMahon that number falls to 0.491. Playing opposite an all-time great defense, McMahon posted an outstanding 0.754 winning percentage as a starter, which included a 22-game winning streak. Even with McMahon, if you remove games started by Ed Brown (who has the best yards per completion average in history), the Bears would have a sub-.500 winning percentage since 1950. Meanwhile, the quarterback who most cratered the franchise’s winning percentage is Bobby Douglass, who is notable for averaging 2.25 rushing yards for every pass he threw. As always, I also recommend sorting this table by games started: you will see that Jay Cutler has started the most games for the Bears at quarterback since 1950, and that he was perfectly average.

entries per page

Search:

Ovr Rk	QB	G	W	L	T	QB Win %	FrG	FrW	FL	FrT	Fr W%	Win% w/o QB	Diff
42	Jim McMahon	61	46	15	0	0.754	1018	511	498	9	0.506	0.491	1.6%
84	Ed Brown	66	39	25	2	0.606	1018	511	498	9	0.506	0.499	0.7%
100	Mike Tomczak	31	21	10	0	0.677	1018	511	498	9	0.506	0.501	0.5%
114	Kyle Orton	33	21	12	0	0.636	1018	511	498	9	0.506	0.502	0.4%
121	Johnny Lujack	18	13	5	0	0.722	1018	511	498	9	0.506	0.503	0.4%
122	Mike Phipps	20	14	6	0	0.700	1018	511	498	9	0.506	0.503	0.4%
141	Rex Grossman	31	19	12	0	0.613	1018	511	498	9	0.506	0.503	0.3%
144	Billy Wade	49	27	20	2	0.571	1018	511	498	9	0.506	0.503	0.3%
151	Zeke Bratkowski	16	11	5	0	0.688	1018	511	498	9	0.506	0.503	0.3%
154	Rudy Bukich	30	17	11	2	0.600	1018	511	498	9	0.506	0.504	0.3%

Showing 1 to 10 of 57 entries

At running back, Bears fans can boast about two Hall of Famers during the Super Bowl era and a few other really good running backs. Walter Payton led Chicago in rushing yards in 164 of his career games (playoffs included), the second-most of any player with one team in history (Emmitt Smith, of course, being first). Gale Sayers was a superstar for a short period of time, but still cracks the top five here. Matt Forte, Thomas Jones, and Neal Anderson were workhorse backs that played at a high level during their time in Chicago.

And then there’s Rick Casares, who was an immediate star and the best fullback back in the NFL until Jim Brown arrived. In 2001, recruiting analysts said there were only five players in history who could have made the jump from high school directly to the NFL: Junior Seau, Randy Moss, Andre Carter, Herschel Walker, and Casares. And I didn’t forget about Beattie Feathers or Bronko Nagurski, but their careers ended well before 1950.

Search:

Rusher	First Yr	Last Yr	Leading Rusher	Total Games	%
Walter Payton	1975	1987	164	199	82%
Matt Forte	2008	2015	107	122	88%
Neal Anderson	1986	1993	73	122	60%
Rick Casares	1955	1964	59	122	48%
Gale Sayers	1965	1971	48	68	71%
Thomas Jones	2004	2006	44	49	90%
Jordan Howard	2016	2018	37	48	77%
Anthony Thomas	2001	2004	36	52	69%
Ronnie Bull	1962	1970	26	111	23%
Raymont Harris	1994	1997	24	44	55%
Willie Galimore	1957	1963	23	83	28%
James Allen	1998	2001	23	51	45%
Curtis Enis	1998	2000	19	36	53%
Bobby Douglass	1969	1975	17	61	28%
Rashaan Salaam	1995	1997	15	31	48%
Cedric Benson	2005	2007	14	38	37%
Don Shy	1970	1972	14	32	44%
Lewis Tillman	1994	1995	13	31	42%
John Dottley	1951	1953	12	27	44%
Carl Garrett	1973	1974	12	20	60%
Roland Harper	1975	1982	10	90	11%
Robert Green	1993	1996	10	55	18%
Brad Muster	1988	1992	10	80	13%

At wide receiver, Chicago has a much less impressive history. Harlon Hill was great, but it is telling that no Bears receiver since 1961 has been able to lead the team in more games than he did during his 8-year stint in Chicago during a dead ball era. Brandon Marshall and Jeff Graham led the team in receiving yards during half of their games, but each only stayed in the windy city for two seasons.

Search:

Receiver	First Yr	Last Yr	Leading Receiver	Total Games	%
Harlon Hill	1954	1961	35	90	39%
Curtis Conway	1993	1999	35	94	37%
Willie Gault	1983	1987	32	83	39%
Dick Gordon	1965	1971	31	97	32%
Marty Booker	1999	2008	30	83	36%
James Scott	1976	1983	29	72	40%
Johnny Morris	1958	1967	29	122	24%
Walter Payton	1975	1987	28	199	14%
Mike Ditka	1961	1966	27	85	32%
Wendell Davis	1988	1993	24	86	28%
Brandon Marshall	2012	2014	23	45	51%
Alshon Jeffery	2012	2016	21	63	33%
Marcus Robinson	1998	2002	20	51	39%
Tom Waddle	1989	1994	20	63	32%
Dennis McKinnon	1983	1989	20	93	22%
Bernard Berrian	2004	2007	19	62	31%
Jim Dooley	1952	1961	19	82	23%
Jeff Graham	1994	1995	17	34	50%
Johnny Knox	2009	2012	16	47	34%
George Farmer	1970	1975	16	64	25%
Devin Hester	2006	2013	16	112	14%
Rickey Watts	1979	1983	15	57	26%
Bobby Engram	1996	2000	14	62	23%
Bill McColl	1952	1959	14	97	14%
Emery Moorehead	1981	1988	14	115	12%
Matt Forte	2008	2015	14	122	11%
Muhsin Muhammad	2005	2007	13	51	25%
Gene Schroeder	1951	1957	13	65	20%
Desmond Clark	2003	2010	13	115	11%
Bo Rather	1974	1978	12	56	21%
Bob Wallace	1968	1972	12	59	20%
Neal Anderson	1986	1993	12	122	10%
Brian Baschnagel	1976	1984	12	132	9%
Earl Bennett	2008	2013	11	80	14%
Dez White	2000	2003	10	61	16%
Ron Morris	1987	1992	10	71	14%
Dennis Gentry	1982	1992	10	171	6%

That’s it for the Chicago version of this series. Please leave your thoughts in the comments.

Tagged as: 2019 Profiles

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