If the cards fall just right, the Chicago Bears should have an opportunity to acquire one of the top centers in the league during 2025 NFL free agency in a few months.
The Bears have desperately needed a quality starting center on their roster for some time now, having spent the past several seasons cycling through a variety of average-to-below-average options, including Cody Whitehair, Lucas Patrick and Coleman Shelton. And with Shelton — their current starter — playing on an expiring contract in 2024, they will almost certainly have to go back to the well for another new option in 2025.
Fortunately, Atlanta Falcons star Drew Dalman may provide them with a solution.
Windy City Gridiron’s Jacob Infante recently ran a mock of the Bears’ 2025 offseason, examining potential options in both free agency and the NFL draft and making several predictions about what Chicago should do with its ample cap space and draft resources.
One of his top predictions? The Bears will sign Dalman to a three-year, $37 million deal that will make him one of the NFL’s highest-paid players at the position, locking down a high-level starter to help protect quarterback Caleb Williams for the foreseeable future.
“Dalman has topped a PFF grade above 78.0 in three of his four seasons in the NFL,” Infante wrote, a reference to Dalman’s elite grades both as a run-blocker and overall in 2024. “At 26 years old, he has solidified himself as one of the top centers in the league.”
Dalman has been an absolute force for the Falcons’ run game since they drafted him in the fourth round of the 2021 draft, making him a potential free-agent gem for the Bears.
According to Pro Football Focus, Dalman has been one of the best run-blockers over the past three seasons, finishing with the third-best run-blocking PFF grades in both 2023 (90.0) and 2022 (82.3). He has also continued to maintain that reputation again in 2024, currently owning the fourth-best run-blocking grade (89.1) — and fourth-best overall grade (85.3) — among NFL centers through the first 14 weeks of the season
