Bears' Mr. Cool Under the Highest NFL Heat

Can Drew Dalman Bring Stability to Heart of Chicago Offensive Line?

Drew Dalman, the Bears' fourth Week 1 starting center over the past four years, hopes to bring stability to one of the weakest positions on the Chicago offensive line.

By Clete Campbell

Windy City End Zone

The product is called CoolMitt, a revolutionary cooling unit that helps athletes stay comfortable during intense training.

Don’t report for training camp without Drew Dalman advises his teammates.

When it comes to the intense humidity of Lake Forest in July and August and the Death Valley heat pass rushers loved to breathe down on Caleb Williams while sacking him an extremely unhealthy 68 times last season, Dalman is trying to keep his quarterback as cool as possible.

That’s what the NFL’s elite centers do, and Drew Dalman has one goal in mind for his 2025 season and first campaign with the Chicago Bears: be the NFL’s best play snapper.

And he has two-to-three seconds to prove it on every down of the likely 500-plus snaps he’s going to play in 2025.

“A lot of that is happening in the two-three seconds you have before the defense is set and the ball is snapped,” the former Atlanta Falcons standout told Bears.com.

Like any job, the 6-foot-3, 305-pound Dalman has become great by learning from his mistakes.

“I feel like I have a string of really critical mistakes from early on that just flashed through my mind,” said Dalman, who the Bears inked to a three-year, $42 million deal with $28 million guaranteed earlier this spring. “There were things that were really tough learning experiences in the moment, but now I look back and they taught me valuable lessons. There were a few moments where I had teammates that had been doing this for 10-12 years and sitting there watching them go about their business, seeing what a true professional looked like, I feel like that was my 'oh this is really different' moment.”

If Dalman sounds like he was born to be an NFL player, it’s because he was. He’s the son of an NFL center and guard. His father, Chris Dalman, was an impact lineman for the San Francisco 49ers, winning Super Bowl XXIX.

His job? Stay cool while delivering clean snaps and zero negative impact blocking for the Bears on every play. It’s the work quality promise he’s based his career on. Last season, he was the definition of a Pro Bowl center. He charted just three penalties, allowed just two sacks, and paved running lanes for the Falcons’ strong run game.

Dalman, as any long-suffering Bears fan knows, is the team’s fourth Week 1 center over the past four seasons. His mission is to bring much needed elite tier performance stability to the heart of the Chicago offensive line.

He wants to become as reliable Chicago as true Chi-town deep dish pizza.

“I've had maybe one in my life, but it was a below average one because I haven't been to Chicago much so I'm sure it wasn't from here,” he joked.

Just like his trusty CoolMitt, Drew Dalman is staying cool under center for the upcoming sure-to-be strong 2025 Bears football season fire.