One of the bigger storylines of the Chicago Bears' offseason, thus far, has been the sudden retirement of Drew Dalman just a couple of months ago.
Since then, the Bears have made multiple moves to try and fill Dalman's shoes, starting with the trade for former New England Patriot Garrett Bradbury. But that wasn't all.
The Bears then selected Logan Jones in the second round of the 2026 NFL Draft. Coming out of Iowa, Jones was viewed by many experts as the top true center in this year's class, and the Bears got him.
One of Jones' first moves as a rookie, though, is about to come under heavy scrutiny and questioning. When the rookie jersey numbers were announced, Jones had selected no. 54.
As Bears beat reporter Adam Jahns pointed out, this is the first time a player has worn number 54 since the great Brian Urlacher.
The Chicago Bears have not retired Brian Urlacher's no. 54 jersey number
The notable aspect of this is the fact that there simply might not have been enough numbers to go around. After all, the Bears have retired more jersey numbers than any other team in the NFL, having made a whopping 14 of them off limits.
So, when the Bears opted to stop retiring jersey numbers, it was too late for Urlacher to ever own that honor. Thus, his number is fair game for anybody.
Now, fans are going to immediately expect the best out of any player who picks up and wears that particular number. Urlacher is a franchise icon and NFL legend in his own right, and for a rookie to come in and take those digits is quite the bold move.
As Jahns also pointed out in his post, linked above, these jersey numbers are often not official and they're subject to change. But then, his colleague Adam Hoge did confirm Jones was going to wear the number this season because Brian Urlacher, himself, gave Jones his blessing.
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If he sticks with it, then Jones is going to be a confirmed future Hall of Fame player. That's how this works, right?
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