Riddle of the middle: When would Bears have shifted Urlacher?

MIAMI -- I don't wonder how good Chicago linebacker Brian Urlacher is. I know. I watched the guy play the last few years, and I sit in the Miami Convention Center next to someone who voted him for the Heisman Trophy.

"He was the best college football player I saw," said Nick Canepa, a columnist for the San Diego Union-Tribune. "He played about 10 different positions (at New Mexico) and excelled at all of them."

I understand that. What I don't understand is what would've happened to Urlacher without Barry Minter. Or, more accurately, with Barry Minter.

If it weren't for an injury to Bears middle backer Barry Minter ... (Getty Images)

That's right, Barry Minter. He was the Bears' middle linebacker when Urlacher was a rookie, and he played the position well enough that the club moved Urlacher to an outside spot, behind Rosevelt Colvin.

That lasted only until Minter got hurt, which was the second game of the 2000 season. The Bears moved Urlacher to his spot, started him and ... well, the rest you can figure out.

So what happens to Brian Urlacher if Barry Minter isn't hurt? What happens if Minter doesn't budge from the lineup, Colvin stays where he is and Urlacher is nailed to the bench? The consensus of pro scouts and player personnel directors is that Urlacher's talent emerges, he pushes Minter out of a job and he becomes the best middle linebacker in the business.

"He would've eventually been the player," said former San Diego State head coach Ted Tollner, who coached against Urlacher at SDSU and with the Detroit Lions. "He needs to move in the middle and not be oriented to one side. He needs to be in position where he can move left or right."

Of course, that's exactly where Urlacher is now -- continuing a tradition of great middle linebackers at Chicago. He is perfectly suited for the Bears' Cover-2 defense, an inside presence who can stop the run, yet someone who has the speed to drop deep into middle coverage. If you don't believe me, you didn't see the Bears' win over New Orleans in the NFC Championship Game, when it was Urlacher covering Marques Colston on a couple of deep throws.

Heck, when Reggie Bush scored on that 88-yard touchdown catch and run, it was Urlacher who closed on him.

... would Brian Urlacher be here, on the biggest stage in football? (Getty Images)

But rewind the videotape to Urlacher's rookie season, and you find Chicago lining him up over the tight end, where he was forced to use his hands more than his feet. Urlacher wasn't comfortable, and it showed. He struggled to do anything until the Bears were forced to move him off the line and into the middle of the field.

Which is where he belonged in the first place.

"The whole thing," said an NFL assistant who asked not to be identified, "is that when you looked at films of him in college, New Mexico would line him up 12 yards off the line of scrimmage and in the middle of the field. Then, with the snap of the ball, you could count 3, 2, 1 and he would explode forward like a missile.

"When they had him over the tight end he was out of position and didn't know what to do. It was a huge difference, not only because of the difference in competition between New Mexico and the NFL, but because the defense was so much different. It would be like asking someone who crosses the street in a town of 12,000 people with one traffic signal to cross I-95."