With the Bears season nearing quickly -- right? It has to show up sometime -- let's crack open the record books to see where current Bears players stand among the best in franchise history.
Passing leader: Jay Cutler is already the no. 2 passer in Bears' history. Read that again. Cutler, who has been in Chicago for four seasons, is the second best passer in terms of yardage in the city's history. This says more about the Bears' ineptitude with quarterbacks than it does about Cutler's success.
Luckman, who played from 1939-1950, has 14,686 yards. Cutler is only 2,394 yards behind him, and the only season in Chicago where he threw for less than that was 2011. He missed six games with injury that year. This means barring an injury or the unlikely emergence of Josh McCown as the no. 1 guy, Cutler will become the all-time passing leader for the Bears this season.
Rushing leader: Walter Payton held the all-time rushing record for the NFL for many years, so you can bet he will hold the Bears record for quite a while. Matt Forte is steadily moving up the list. He's now in fourth place, in front of Gale Sayers and behind Rick Casares, who played from 1955-1964.
Forte has 5,327 yards, and he is only 330 yards behind Casares. He could move up to the third spot by the fourth game of the season. He even has a shot to move up to no. 2, currently held by Neal Anderson. If Forte gets 889 yards -- which he has accomplished every season in Chicago -- he will move to the spot behind Payton.
Receiving leader: Unlike Cutler and Forte, Brandon Marshall isn't near the top of the Bears' all-time receiving lists. Johnny Morris holds the top spot with 5,059 yards, followed by Harlon Hill, Payton, Mike Ditka and Curtis Conway.
Marshall is in 44th place with 1,508 yards. The crazy part is that with a good season, he could jump into the top 25. A 1,000-yard season would put him in 22nd place, just ahead of Forte. If he repeats the 1,508-yard season he had in 2012, he would be in 12th place. A 1,694-yard season -- which he has never accomplished -- would put him in the top 10.
Overall scoring: Kevin Butler, the rookie kicker for the Super Bowl-winning Bears, holds the all-time points record with 1,116 points. Robbie Gould is in second place with 902 yards. Gould's scoring hovers around 100 points per season, so we won't see Butler's record be broken this year.
Tackling leader: The recently retired Brian Urlacher holds the franchise record with 1,052. He's followed by Lance Briggs, who would need 1,89 tackles to pass his longtime teammate. Briggs get 70-80 tackles a season, so he will likely need a few seasons to move up.
Sack leaders: No one will touch Richard Dent's 124.5 sacks record for some time, but Julius Peppers could move into the top 10 this year. He's currently in 11 with 30.5 sacks as a Bear. If he gets at least 11 sacks, which he has the past two seasons, he will be tied with Urlacher in seventh place.
Interception leader: Charles Tillman already holds the Bears record for the most forced fumbles. He's currently fourth on the all-time Chicago list with 33 picks. Gary Fencik holds the record with 38. Tillman has never had more than five interceptions in a season. so Fencik's record could be safe for another year.
