Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Report: Drew Dalman has informed the Bears that he's retiring from NFL

Episode Date: March 3, 2026

Leila Rahimi and Marshall Harris reacted to the breaking news that Pro Bowl center Drew Dalman has informed the Bears that he’s retiring at 27 years old.

This is big time breaking news, and this is not good. Adam Schaefter is reporting that Drew Dalman has informed the Bears that he is retiring at age 27. 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. That is within the minute. I cannot believe this. And there must be some first. explanation because, you know, I know about retiring early.

We've seen so many NFL players do this, but at the age of 27? Wow. This is a scenario that I don't think any of us planned for thinking about that it would happen. Delman signed a free agent contract last year with the Bears, and his work was excellent. He ended up going to the Pro Bowl. Uh, Dolman is

pivotal to this team and now I find myself in a similar situation except I think Frank Ragnow that was more expected than this. Yes. This is shocking. Not even to the age of 30. He just finished his age 27 season

finishing the first year of a three year 42 million dollar contract. It's that part too. We thought we were going to know Drew Dalman's services for another two years after this. Wow. Okay. Not totally panicking here, but this is a huge concern for the Bears. And we just talked about how the priority was so clear that, oh yeah, you need to figure out left tackle, but maybe they'll do that in-house with the pieces gone.

But look at the other four members of that offensive line. And now... Well, I mean, left tackle's been very much a question, Mark. Now, looking at the center position, and how many times have we said, you know what, isn't it good not to worry about center? It was me. I said it. I said I was really happy that I didn't have to worry about the center and quarterback exchange. Oh, my goodness. Now we're going to have major change, as Adam Schaefter reports, that Drew Dalman says he is hanging up his cleats after just five NFL seasons, only one with the bears.

Well, and then there's also the matter of, okay, how does the retirement also affect the cap hits and things of that nature? That is, this is unexpected and it just leaves us with more questions at this point than we could possibly have answers. I will say this. Better this decision occur now than later if you're the Bears, because now you are somewhat prepared going into the draft, free agency, everything. else, you didn't want a later decision on something like this. And the biggest question that I will have going forward until we get an answered is, why? So from what I understand, retirement, and I'm searching here, because this is not something that we've had to deal with. Retirement, while under an existing contract, generally results in the contract being frozen or terminated, but it does not instantly wipe the remaining financial obligations from the team's salary cap.

All right, so in the NFL, any unamortized, so signing bonus money, money already paid to the player but not yet counted against the cap immediately accelerates onto the current year's cap. So that means. If the retirement happens before June 1st, all remaining bonus money hits the cap immediately. Well, we are well before June 1st. If it happens after June 1st, the current year's pro-rated bonus hits this year, and the rest hits the following year. The player forfeits any remaining unearned salary, which removes that portion from future cap obligations.

The team has the right to pursue the return of a portion of the signing bonus for unplayed seasons. It successfully recovered that amount is credited back to the cap. So it is a big deal that this is not only a retirement that we did not see coming, that it was a retirement that happened before the league year and also before June 1st. Drew Dalman, according to Adam Schefter at the Bear Center, retiring at the age of 27. We'll talk about this with Lawrence Holmes and Matt Spiegel next.