Garrett Bradbury Faces Real Pressure as Logan Jones Pushes for Bears' Center Job

One of the biggest blows to the Chicago Bears this offseason came when Drew Dalman retired from the NFL after just one season with the Bears. This shocking development robbed the Bears of a young, Pro Bowl center to whom they'd just signed a three-year deal and left them scrambling to find a suitable replacement.

To that end, the Bears traded for Garrett Bradbury almost immediately, sending the New England Patriots a 2027 fifth-round pick in exchange for the veteran center. They didn't stop there, either. The 2026 NFL draft lacked a premier talent at center, such as a Tyler Linderbaum, but featured plenty of promising prospects nonetheless, and the Bears selected arguably the best of the bunch when they added Logan Jones with a second-round pick.

These two roster moves set up an intriguing position battle for training camp. Let's take a look at each player's resume and see whether the veteran can hold off the upstart rookie.

Garrett Bradbury's case

Experience matters a great deal in the NFL, especially in the trenches, and Bradbury brings plenty of it to the table. He's started 105 games in his seven NFL seasons, and he hasn't missed a game since 2023. He's also started in eight postseason games, including last year's Super Bowl run with the Patriots. The Bears did well by bringing in such an experienced veteran for such a relatively cheap cost.

Unfortunately for Bradbury, that's about the extent of his case to be the starter. He's finished each of the last two seasons as one of the lowest-graded centers according to Pro Football Focus, and the eye-test bears that out. He also struggled mightily throughout the postseason last year, especially in Super Bowl LX.

This is not meant to bury Bradbury's career with the Bears before it even begins, but there's a reason he was even made available for trade this offseason. If he was a franchise center who could anchor an offensive line for years to come, the Patriots would have kept him. Instead, they shipped him off for a future Day 3 pick. That should tell you everything you need to know.

Logan Jones' case

In the interest of fairness, it's easier to predict future greatness for a rookie than a veteran because the rookie is all potential and has not NFL record to defend or explain. But even with that caveat, it's hard to look at Logan Jones and see anything less than a perennial Pro Bowl talent. For one thing, he hails from Iowa, a school that continues to churn out Pro Bowl offensive linemen, including three-time Pro Bowler Tyler Linderbaum.

Secondly, Jones may lack Bradbury's NFL experience, but he's no fresh-faced youngster. Jones started in 51 games for Iowa since 2021, facing some of the best defenses in college football. He's a tad undersized, but so was Linderbaum when he entered the NFL draft.

Also, Jones is set to turn 25 shortly after the season begins, which means he's already close to his peak. If there's going to be a learning curve for him, it will likely be far shorter and more gradual than, say, the Cincinnati Bengals' Connor Lew, who won't turn 21 until August. As one anonymous AFC personnel director said about Logan Jones ahead of the NFL Combine, "He plays like he’s got two kids and a mortgage to pay, man. That kind of grown-man effort."

Prediction: Logan Jones is named the starting center in the preseason

I don't think the Bears will be in any rush to name a starting center, but the eventual winner will likely be clear early on in August. For me, that means the rookie will supplant the veteran. Logan Jones, who received Brian Urlacher's blessing to wear his No. 54, is just too talented and too experienced to have to sit behind Bradbury for any length of time once the regular season begins. If he's not already a better NFL center as of this writing, Jones will prove to be so in preseason games.

Bradbury will make for an excellent mentor for Jones throughout the season, and so the trade may not be a total waste for Chicago. In fact, the Bears could even get great value for Bradbury should they trade him to a center-needy team before the deadline. Either way, he was never going to be more than a stopgap measure in Chicago, and the drafting of Logan Jones only hastens his eventual departure.

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