Bear Digest

Most critical Bears free agency question centers around blocking

How the Bears handle the center position could very well dictate the success or failure of their ability to rebuild the offensive line and their offense in general.

Gene Chamberlain

Falcons center Drew Dalman tries to handle Bears defensive tackle Andrew Billings on the pass rush.
Falcons center Drew Dalman tries to handle Bears defensive tackle Andrew Billings on the pass rush. / Jamie Sabau-Imagn Images
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One offensive line position has the potential to make or break plans by the Bears to load up their offense.

That would be where it all starts, the center position.

The Bears got by with Coleman Shelton at center in 2024 when it wasn't even clear he would even be the starter after he was signed in free agency. Perhaps they didn't really get by considering the way the line performed. Ryan Bates' injury issues meant Shelton had to do it and if Pro Football Focus grades are to be believed,

Shelton was right in the idle of the crowd. Considering his bargain $3 million cap cost, they got more than their money's worth but this obviously is not what they're going to be satisifed with on the line under coach Ben Johnson.

With Detroit, Johnson was blessed with perennial All-Pro Frank Ragnow to anchor a dominant offensive line.

Coming up with someone like this usually means drafting and grooming him in the NFL. Centers are made and not simply plucked out of college. Often they're guards who have a knack for the position.

Only occasionally does a Zach Frazier or Tyler Linderbaum come along and GMs need to pounce on them. Often it takes a year or two to get a college center up to handling the position.

Ragnow himself wasn't even a center as a rookie. He played guard.

Unfortunately for the Bears, there is no sure Day 1 center option at the position in this draft and even a Day 2 choice is somewhat of a question.

It was easy to see why North Dakota State's Grey Zabel got moved around between guard, tackle and also center, a position he hasn't played. If he could handle center, he could be the best one in the draft according to most big boards.

The Bears basically are faced with a difficult series of options to sort through at a critical position.

1 Sign This Veteran Center

Falcons veteran Drew Dalman is PFF's top-ranked free agent center by far, ranked at 22nd overall for free agents, 27th by ESPN and 26th by The 33rd Team. He was graded fourth in the league last year by PFF, only two slots behind Ragnow.

The team signing Dalman can plug and play and expect to pay. Dalman is projected by PFF at $11.5 million a year and $27.5 million guaranteed. No doubt the Bears or any other team would like to pay the $6.8 million market value attached to Dalman by Spotrac.com but that seems an unlikely figure. The Bears paid more than $10 million a year for guard Nate Davis two years ago before he bombed out. A highly rated lineman controlling things from the top of the market is going to get paid.

Dalman missed eight games last year with an ankle injury and it shouldn't impact his play now as it occurred early last year and he finished up starting the final six games.

Dalman is regarded a slightly better run blocker than pass blocker, although he wasn't a poor pass blocker. PFF graded him 12th among pass blockers. He was third-ranked among centers overall in 2023.

This basically becomes a must-have player for the Bears if they're serious about upgrading the offensive line. A top level center and a guard or even two guards transforms this into a different offensive line.

The downside will be the competition for this one player, driving up the cost. There are other teams with more cap money for free agency and the Bears have several needs.

2. The Draft

The best Bears option might be to move back in Round 1 and draft Zabel, or hope they can get him with one of their two second-round picks at No. 39 or 41. He was the offensive line darling of Senior Bowl week.

The next-best college option is Jared Wilson of Georgia, graded No. 1 among centers by ESPN draft guru Mel Kiper Jr. but only a fourth-round value according to the NFL Mock Draft Data Base's big board. There are other later options like Caleb Williams' former teammate Jonah Monheim of USC or Drew Kendall from Boston College, but either way these are players not regarded as plug and play.

So the Bears would need someone else initially playing the position until they are sure these project centers are ready to handle it.

Do they have this person already under contract in Ryan Bates or Doug Kramer?

3. Vet and Pick

If they don't feel like the best option to start while grooming a draft pick, there is a potential short-term answer this year in free agency.

The next-best center in the draft is 31-year-old Ryan Kelly from the Colts. Normally a player of Kelly's background could be the No. 1 center in free agency. He made four Pro Bowls, which is four more than Dalman made.

His age isn't a huge issue but he reportedly was considering retirement and he had a knee surgery last year. He might be a better fit for playing with Williams as he's considered a better pass blocker than run blocker, according to PFF. They had him 12th as a pass blocker out of 64 centers but only 30th as a run blocker.

The Spotrac market for Kelly is about $10 million a year and PFF at $9.5 million, which projects a two-year deal at that figure.

Would the Bears pay this much for a veteran player with a high level of production but age and injury concerns while they bring along a rookie to play there?

It might be their best option if they don't sign the top free agent option, Dalman.

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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.