“Bears Pro Bowl center Drew Dalman has informed the team that he is retiring from the NFL at age 27,” wrote Schefter<\/a>. “Dalman left Stanford in 2021, and after four seasons in Atlanta and one in Chicago, he has made the sudden and surprising decision to retire.”<\/p>\n The Falcons drafted Dalman in the fourth round of the 2021 NFL Draft out of Stanford. He won the starting job during his sophomore season, starting all 17 games for the Falcons in 2022. Dalman helped the team form one of the best offensive lines in football under former head coach Arthur Smith.<\/p>\n Atlanta could not afford to retain Dalman as a free agent in 2024. The former fourth-round pick landed a three-year, $42 million contract with the Chicago Bears and made his first Pro Bowl in 2025.<\/p>\n The move comes as a major surprise around the league. The Bears have already begun looking for Dalman’s replacement.<\/p>\n Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n “The Bears are hosting free agent center Tyler Biadasz on a visit, source said,” reported NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport<\/a>. “The former Commanders<\/a> starter was recently released and now is available before the frenzy begins.”<\/p>\n
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<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated March 3, 2026, 3:32 p.m. ET Former Atlanta Falcons center Drew Dalman is set to retire just…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":791035,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2074],"tags":[95878,223,254,2554,224,7,6,96607,96608,95882,96609,96089,96901,95892,95896,95888,95895,95897,95899,95883,96241,96004,96006,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-791034","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-falcons","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-atlanta","10":"tag-atlanta-falcons","11":"tag-atlantafalcons","12":"tag-falcons","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-sstssportsnflfalcons","16":"tag-sstsnfalcons","17":"tag-tagamerican-football","18":"tag-tagatlanta-falcons","19":"tag-tagchicago-bears","20":"tag-tagdrew-dalman","21":"tag-tagespn-inc","22":"tag-tagnational-sports","23":"tag-tagnfl","24":"tag-tagnfl-hub","25":"tag-tagoverall-negative","26":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","27":"tag-tagsports-news","28":"tag-tagstanford-university","29":"tag-tagtyler-biadasz","30":"tag-tagwashington-commanders","31":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116170028777286575","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=791034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/791035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=791034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=791034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=791034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}