Every NFL Team’s Best Draft Pick of All-Time

<p>The Bears have some great picks in their history, namely Dick Butkus and Gale Sayers who went third and fourth in 1965, but Walter Payton gets the nod as the best in franchise history. Payton was the No. 4 pick in 1975 out of Jackson St and retired as the NFL’s all-time rushing leader with 16,726 yards.</p> <p>Payton has since been passed by Emmitt Smith for the rushing record but sits second for carries and yards, he’s third in yards from scrimmage, trailing Jerry Rice and Smith and is fourth with 110 touchdowns.</p> <p>He won the MVP in 1977 after leading rushing for 1,852 yards and 14 touchdowns on 339 carries. Payton led the NFL in carries, yards, touchdowns, yards per carry, yards per game, yards from scrimmage and total touchdowns that year. He led the league in carries four times and in rushing once during his 13-year career and made nine Pro Bowl teams.</p> <p>Payton played his entire career with the Bears, winning the Super Bowl after going 15-1 in 1985 and was inducted in the Hall of Fame in 1993. The player with the most appropriate nickname of all-time, “Sweetness” was and remains Chicago’s most beloved athlete.</p>. RB. Chicago Bears. Walter Payton. 6. player. 57