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Bears starting center Drew Dalman.
The Chicago Bears didn’t get too cute or creative in the two opening rounds of the NFL draft, addressing specific needs with logical picks at Nos. 25 and 57 on Thursday and Friday, respectively.
After acquiring safety Dillon Thieneman out of Oregon in the first round to fill in for departed first-team All-Pro Kevin Byard III and 17-game starter Jaquan Brisker, the Bears turned to center Logan Jones of Iowa in Round 2.
Chicago had to scramble this offseason to replace center Drew Dalman, whom the team paid $42 million on a three-year deal in free agency in 2025. However, after a Pro Bowl campaign last year, the first of his five-year career, Dalman unexpectedly retired heading into his age-28 campaign.
The Bears traded with the New England Patriots for former Minnesota Vikings center Garrett Bradbury in March, who has one year remaining on his two-year deal worth $9.5 million. He will cost Chicago $4.7 million in base salary and bonuses, and has another $1 million in incentives on his deal that Spotrac dubs as “likely.”
Bradbury is a reasonable single-season replacement in a pinch, though the former first-rounder struggled during his time in Minnesota and finished 30th out of 40 centers who played enough snaps to qualify in 2025.
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Max Dible covers the NFL, NBA and MLB for Heavy.com, with a focus on the Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings, Chicago Bears and Cleveland Browns. He covered local and statewide news as a reporter for West Hawaii Today and served as news director for BigIslandNow.com and Pacific Media Group's family of Big Island radio stations before joining Heavy. More about Max Dible