This offseason I am taking a position-by-position look at the best NFL draft values of the millennium: In short, which teams received the most bang for their draft-pick buck?
Higher draft picks were not dismissed for this exercise, but I tended to side with the highest-achieving lower selections. Extra weight was also given to longevity and the value those players provided for the teams that drafted them.
At linebacker, we're considering only the players who spent the majority of their time at the off-the-ball position, leaving predominant pass rushers (such as DeMarcus Ware, T.J. Watt and Von Miller) for the edge-rush spot.
The list of best players at position was flush with higher-round talent, which made sorting through them a little tougher. But even while adding some higher picks to the mix, I was able to land on five of the better performers over the past quarter century.
Drafted: Round 2 (No. 47), 2012.
It's funny to look back at now, but some analysts were not wild about the Seahawks taking Wagner in the middle of Round 2. In retrospect, the wild part was how far off those evaluations would prove to be. Even in a pretty loaded LB class in 2012, Wagner holds up as one of the best and most productive players selected that year -- at any position.
Wagner earned a starting job immediately as a rookie, finishing second in Defensive Rookie of the Year voting (to Luke Kuechly), and was off to the races from there. He'd start for the next decade in Seattle and, after one year with the Rams, play another season with the 'Hawks in 2023, totaling a stunning nine Pro Bowl invitations, six first-team All-Pro mentions and three second-team All-Pro nods in his time with the team. He was a foundational piece of the Seahawks' mini-dynasty in the 2010s and earned a spot on the league's all-decade squad.
He's still doing it at a high level with the Commanders, and we shouldn't overlook his productive stint in L.A., either; Wagner made the Pro Bowl again in Washington last year and tacked on additional second-team All-Pro nods in each of his non-Seattle seasons. You can't have a list of draft steals without Wagner's name on it.
Drafted: Round 2 (No. 58 overall), 2012.
Incredibly, David's name was called 11 picks after Wagner's in the same draft. The fact that two players who would become two of the all-time greats -- and still be doing it today at such a high level -- were chosen so close to each other in that range of selections remains a draft oddity. And while both clearly landed in systems that were tailored to their skill sets, it seems clear that each could have thrived in almost any type of defensive system.
Yes, Wagner has been the more decorated player in terms of individual honors, but David's career numbers compare quite favorably to Wagner's, with David logging higher totals in solo tackles (1,111 -- the fifth-most all time), sacks (39), forced fumbles (31) and fumble recoveries (19). Both players deserve praise for their longevity and durability, but for David to do it with a smaller frame (6-foot-1, 233 pounds) makes him an unusual case study.
David has not been known publicly as an attention seeker, and it's unfortunate that he has never quite received his proper due (outside of Tampa, anyway) as one of the greatest off-ball linebackers of this or any generation.
Drafted: Round 3 (No. 70 overall), 2018.
Warner is still much earlier in his career than our first two entries, but he appears to be on the same Hall of Fame-caliber track as Wagner and David. Through seven seasons, Warner has established himself as one of the great three-down linebackers, rarely leaving the field and able to impact games in myriad ways.
Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson are the two headliners from the 2018 draft class, and deservedly so, but Warner might be that crop's best defender, along with Roquan Smith, the No. 8 overall player drafted that year.
Warner's coverage ability might be his elite trait; he's intercepted 10 passes (two returned for TDs) and defended 53 in total. But his all-around game is also excellent (he rates as a strong run defender and blitzer), and he's missed only one career regular-season game. There's a reason he wears the green dot for the 49ers' defense: Warner is as dependable and impactful a player as you'll find at linebacker these days.
Drafted: Round 1 (No. 9 overall), 2000.
A top-10 pick as a steal? Hear us out.
Urlacher remains the only current Hall of Famer from the 2000 draft class, although Tom Brady will join him the moment he's eligible. Outside of those two, however, it's a relatively star-less group. Of the eight players taken ahead of Urlacher, some became solid to good players and some were busts. If we did a re-draft of this class today, Brady would go first overall, and I think there's a strong case to put Urlacher No. 2.
Some had their doubts about Urlacher, a college safety for a 4-7 New Mexico team in the Mountain West Conference, and he was not an immediate hit, coming off the bench his first two pro games. But from that point on, he looked like nothing short of a star. Urlacher was the Defensive Rookie of the Year, was named a first-team All-Pro four times, won the 2005 Defensive Player of the Year award and also led the Bears to Super Bowl XLI.
Even with Urlacher missing big chunks of the 2004 and 2009 seasons, there was no player in the league who manned the middle linebacker spot as well as he did for more than a decade after his arrival. And he did it all in Chicago, where expectations for the position are plenty high.
Drafted: Round 3 (No. 68 overall), 2003.
Briggs often found himself in Urlacher's shadow nationally, but Bears fans knew then -- and still remember -- just how special he was. In any hypothetical re-draft of the 2003 class, Briggs almost certainly would have been a first-rounder, even with a wealth of defensive talent that included Troy Polamalu, Terrell Suggs and Kevin Williams.
Like Urlacher, Briggs was an ideal fit in Lovie Smith's Tampa-2 defense, unleashing his speed and rare instincts to rack up tackles (1,181 in his career), tackles for loss (97), interceptions (16, including an eyebrow-raising five pick-sixes) and forced fumbles (16). It's no shock he was first- or second-team All-Pro three times and was named to seven straight Pro Bowls.
Urlacher might have been the superstar of some great Chicago defenses, but Briggs was nearly as good -- and just like his running mate, Briggs spent the entirety of his career with the Bears, making him one of the franchise's best value picks ever.
