If a tight end is known as a quarterback’s best friend, then a center has to be a close second.
For Bears quarterback Caleb Williams, he has a new center this season in veteran Drew Dalman, who signed with the Bears on a three-year, $42 million contract after being with the Atlanta Falcons for four seasons.
The Bears desperately needed to upgrade the center position after Williams’ rookie season led to the quarterback being sacked a league-high 68 times, and general manager Ryan Poles did so by signing the top center in free agency.
If Dalman can help keep Williams upright, then the two will be best of friends.
And Dalman is already making his quarterback’s life easier by doing a simple but important task.
“Without getting into any kind of scheme specifics or anything like that, we've done a really good job of communicating with each other and letting each other know what's helpful, what's not helpful, what kind of things he really likes to hear from me and what things we need to hear from him,” Dalman said on Monday. “That stuff has been really good, learning the flow of information at the line of scrimmage. Then, just the offense as a whole runs really well when all of us are communicating, so that's been a focus of the O-line, relaying everything we need to know, and then the quarterback relaying back. I feel like that's been really improving and it's been good.”
How Williams and Dalman can mesh well together to make it work in 2025
Communication between Williams and his offensive line will be key this season, especially since every starter except right guard Jonah Jackson is entering the first year of head coach Ben Johnson’s offense.
Dalman, 26, has 50 games of NFL experience and will be expected to help take some of the responsibilities off Williams’ plate. And allow the second-year quarterback to focus on one task at a time, which Dalman helped do for rookie signal caller Michael Penix last season.
The veteran center explained how he could help ease the nerves of a first-year quarterback, but it also applies to his situation with Williams.
“On any given play, you have got a whole sequence of ‘let's get the play correct for all of us,’” Dalman said. “Let's all get lined up correctly. Let's all remember the snap count, every player on the field. I feel like when you break your job down into individual tasks like that and you can rattle them off so you can quickly develop a rhythm throughout the game. For young players as well as for all players, it's finding that groove of putting your focus on the right thing at the right time, and that just progresses. We'll all be talking about that. We'll all be working through it as the season begins.”
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Dalman and Williams will continue working on their groove, and if the two can click early in the season, it will put the entire offense in position to make some noise in 2025.