Bear Digest

Drew Dalman signing give Bears a line but more work awaits them

The Bears' signing of Drew Dalman shows they're finally serious enough about the center position and offensive line but it takes more than putting a starting five together.
Gene Chamberlain|
Drew Dalman in the middle of the line is a definite upgrade as a run blocker but at his new rate of pay he needs a big improvement as a pass blocker.
Drew Dalman in the middle of the line is a definite upgrade as a run blocker but at his new rate of pay he needs a big improvement as a pass blocker. | Dale Zanine-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

As the free agent signings come down, never lose sight of the point of it all for the Bears.

That's Caleb Williams.

Paying a repoted three years and $42 million to bring center Drew Dalman to the Bears should end one run of stupidity by the team. It might cause questions about another problem.

The question is whether this signing can bring about desired improvement fast enough. It definitely would be difficult to make them worse than 68 sacks allowed.

They've needed a real, quality center for years to direct the blocking schemes up front and help prevent sacks and stunts from getting home.


Considering the center touches the ball more often than even the quarterback, it's amazing how little regard the Bears have had for the position since Olin Kreutz left Chicago after the 2010 season.

They made guard Roberto Garza switch positions at age 32 and then snap until he was 35 and retired.

Hroniss Grasu did it briefly and blew out his knee. They made Cody Whitehair switch positions as a rookie to do it but didn't keep him there after he had some initial success. Sam Mustipher, Lucas Patrick, Dan Feeney and Coleman Shelton all took a stab at it.

They've needed a real, quality center for years to direct the blocking schemes up front and help prevent sacks and stunts from getting home.


The $14 million a year hardly seems like an issue considering the fact they're finally addressing the position with a center regarded among the league's top five at his position last year by the graders at Pro Football Focus.

The entire offseason has been geared toward giving Caleb Williams a fighting chance. This should help do it. If it doesn't, then blame the Bears' inability to go back beyond Dalman's fourth season on the tape and look at his pass blocking.


If you don't trust PFF blocking grades, his play was so marginal then that he didn't even rate as mediocre. While he was ranked no worse than top half of the league among centers overall from 2021-2023, his pass blocking earned him ranks of 60th, 40th, 39th and 21st in 2024. At least he was getting better.
His thing is his run blocking was so good already and the Bears want to become a run-first team. It's going to be play-action as the basis for this offense and if your center is the best available at run blocking and selling the run, you've done our job.

The other problem is this idea the Bears have bought themselves an offensive line.
There's nothing wrong with this per se. It's just likely to take them a little longer to get it going when they've just thrown a bunch of new players together, because line play is so dependent upon continuity and movement. With BenJohnson, it can take even longer because he wants a line focused on blocking several different ways, not simply wide zone.



They've thrown lines together before in this manner. One of their best lines came together and got them to a Super Bowl with great help from free agency. In 2005 they won the division and then went to the Super Bowl the next season and brought in tackles John Tait and Fred Miller and guard Ruben Brown in free agency to team with draft picks Olin Kreutz and guard Terrence Metcalf, father of DK.

It didn't work immediately, though. They struggled in 2004 and early in 2005 before momentum built.

They had two free agents on their 2010 line, Garza and left tackle Frank Omiyale, just one on their 2018 line in right tackle Bobby Massie.

The Super Bowl lines in February weren't all home-grown, either. The Chiefs had to basically throw a line together because of injuries and free agency losses. The Eagles were more stable, but Mekhi Becton was critical to their success as a replacement when he came from the Jets.

So much will depend on the health of the players and having capable linemen in place behind them who are better able to stand in and let them play effectively when someone is injured.

The Bears have switched starting lineups 25 times on the offensive line in the last three seasons almost entirely due to injuries. Last year they only did it once between the start of the season and the Hail Mary pass and had a respectable record despite Caleb Williams' problems early adjusting to NFL play.

Then they did it seven times from Nov. 3 on, and the result was a collapsing offensive line and a quarterback constantly on the run.

Don't be surprised if this offensive line with Dalman, Braxton Jones, Joe Thuney, Darnell Wright and Jonah Jackson takes a while to mesh. Whether they eventually do click and then keep it together will depend mainly on the luck of good health and if whoever else they add to players like Kiran Amegadjie, Bill Murray and Ryan Bates to fill in when called upon.

It will be on Dalman to pull it all together as the linchpin in the middle, and at least they have someone capable there after years when they were kidding themselves.

Now it's going to be a matter of Williams enduring until they've had time to become a blocking force. He'll have plenty on his plate to occupy his time until that happens.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.