CHICAGO -- Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams nicknamed each of his offensive linemen after a Marvel superhero, and it seemed fitting he named center Drew Dalman after the strongest Avenger.
"I call Drew Dalman the Hulk," Williams said in December. "He's the brains and all of it, but when he gets out there and on the field, he's strong as can be, fast and the right guy for the job for us and my future and our future here."
Williams and the Bears will now face the difficult reality of a future without Dalman after the 27-year-old center informed the organization he is retiring after five NFL seasons.
The stunning move became official on Tuesday after whispers about Dalman's plans generated a quiet buzz at the NFL combine. An offensive line that ranked first in pass block win-rate, fifth in run block win-rate and led Chicago to an NFC North championship suddenly is missing a vital piece.
And Dalman's absence won't be the only significant void. Left tackle Ozzy Trapilo, who injured his knee in the wild-card round, will miss most of the 2026 season.
🥲 Hulk...
— Caleb Williams (@CALEBcsw) March 3, 2026
In just over two months, the Bears lost 40% of their starting offensive line, a unit that catapults itself to the top of the team's priority list as free agency nears.
Dalman, a five-year veteran, played every single snap during his lone season in Chicago after signing a three-year, $42 million contract as a free agent. He was the final piece of a week-long project to flip the interior of the offensive line in March 2025 after the Bears traded for Jonah Jackson and Joe Thuney.
The quest of coach Ben Johnson and general manager Ryan Poles to fix the Bears' weakest link paid immediate dividends. After taking a league-high 68 sacks as a rookie, Williams was sacked just 24 times in 2025, the third-fewest in the league. The Bears boasted the No. 3 rushing offense while their passing attack ranked 10th.
Dalman was the Atlanta Falcons' fourth-round pick in 2021 and forged a reputation as the type of elite center the Bears had been searching for since the days of Olin Kruetz and Roberto Garza in the early 2000s and 2010s.
"Drew is just so smart, man," tight end Cole Kmet said. "Like, you know, getting us all on the same page with the IDs and all that stuff. He's been great the whole year, and you know really it's a trickle-down effect to the outside [of the line]."
Arguably no one held more significance to Williams' success in his second NFL season than Dalman. Finding his replacement among a strong class of free agent centers will force the Bears to spend resources they may have aimed to allocate elsewhere, particularly to fix one of the league's worst pass rushes.
In an offseason when the Bears have made it clear their window to contend is now, tapping into a free agent class that includes Baltimore's Tyler Linderbaum, Washington's Tyler Biadasz and Buffalo's Connor McGovern is costly but necessary. The Bears are around $7 million over the cap.
As Johnson put a bow on the 2025 season, the Bears coach declared that Chicago would be "back to square one" as they looked to rebuild the roster. In an offseason dominated by chatter of how to fix one of the league's worst pass rushes, the Bears must split their focus by delving back into the position that was the catalyst behind its 11-win season and success during Johnson's first year.
By the time the Bears went to Indianapolis for the NFL combine, they had developed a preliminary plan for how to solve the void at left tackle.
"We've got some opportunities there whether it's free agency or the draft and certainly some of our own in the building as well that we're looking to continue to develop," Poles said. "And it's not just that one position. It's really a lot of them."
Add center to that list.