Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Whom could the Bears replace Drew Dalman with? | Take The North

Episode Date: March 6, 2026

From 'Take The North' (subscribe here): Dan Wiederer and Mark Grote consider how the Bears could replace Drew Dalman at center. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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cannot be combined with any other offer single item at regular price. Let's start. I mean, the number one name on the center list right now is Tyler Lindermom. He is a free agent. He is Baltimore.

made him a market setting offer that apparently he didn't like. We're looking at a $20 million a year, plus, plus guy. Make sure you emphasize the plus. The plus is very important in this case because I think that's about what Baltimore had offered him. He'd be the dream scenario.

He's the best of the best. And I would just listen to Olin Croutts on the score talking about this guy and watching his tape and his ability to do everything. And probably a better player than even Drew Dahlman, who just feels even better now because he retired. now that we can't have him anymore. But what do you think about the realistic possibilities

of somebody like Tyler Linderbaum coming to the Bears? If our merch department was better, this is the point in the show where I would grab a T-shirt, put it on, and it would say, with what money, Karen? That's where we get to. And maybe it takes the North logo right under it, and I think we should try to market that really quick.

But with what money, Karen, take the North Pod. Let's get on that. Yeah, yeah. I say that because, look, like you put that plus on the end of 20 million, annual value. The bears are, you know, already up against it cap wise. And, and there's no question that Tyler Linderbaum would be the best possible replacement at center for the bears. That's why he would be attractive. There's no question he would be most likely an upgrade over Drew Dalman.

And you plug him in and you'd be like, we feel better. But this isn't done in a vacuum. And you've got all these other needs to fill. And so if that's the direction you want to go, you just have to start asking your questions right away. Okay, do we cross-up? off the premier edge rusher from our free agent shopping list. Do we say Kevin Byard, thanks for stopping by for a couple of years, but we've got to move in a new direction. Yeah. You know, what do we do with the interior of our defensive line? How do we address the safety position as a whole? Like, those are the questions you have to answer in terms of how

important this really is to you. Linderbom is, you know, still under contract with the Ravens through next week when, you know, newly gear begins next week. And so you mentioned, they've already made him an offer and he's rejected it. And so the likelihood is he will hit the open market and then I would imagine the Ravens would say, hey, if you get something you love, come back to us and we'll see if we can match it and then it'll be up to the player to decide whether he wants to stay in Baltimore or just go where the biggest outside offer comes from. It just doesn't feel realistic to me because it just puts you in such a spot. And Brad Biggs on 670, the score on Wednesday also brought up the point that they've paid

Joe Tunney top of the market value. They're paying Jonah Jackson at a healthy level. Danielle Wright is due for a contract extension, you know, within the next 10 to 12 months here, if your option will get exercise. And so now all of a sudden, you have to ask yourself, are we ready to devote all of those resources to one position group? It's an important position group. There's no question about it. But that's that one's tough because you've already, you've already kind of pushed a lot in there. And I don't know if they can make that they can squeeze Linderbaum in under the parameters they're working with. Yeah, I mean, the trickle-down effect. I mean, you mentioned safety, but yeah, that's where, that's what everything is affected by this.

And it would seem. Everything is affected, yeah. Everything is affected. And, you know, like, ideally, you want to put more resources into the left tackle. That's the position that you have to think about too. And I don't know how they're thinking about that considering they will have someday, they will have Ozzie Churchfellow back next season is one you should be thinking about that. Is Theo Benedet ready to step in and fill that void if he's around still?

So all sorts of positions are affected. I guess one of the realistic names or more plausible, more digestible in this case, is another guy that is the name that's being thrown around. And that is Tyler Beaudish, who was the starting center for the Washington commanders for two years. He was recently released by that team. He's a competent player. That does seem realistic to me, Dan. America leads the world in medicine development.

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We will even answer your questions if you send them in. stuff like, what happens when a cemetery goes out of business? What should we do about teens using AI to do their homework? Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store? Follow and listen to Search Engine, in partnership with Odyssey, wherever you get your podcasts. It is realistic for sure, and I put some feelers out on that on Wednesday because it was a bit of a surprise release in Washington,

and the commanders are taking more than $8 million in dead cap with that release, which lead you, your reporter radar starts going off and go, well, why is that? Like, why are they so eager to get rid of him when he seemed like you played at an admirable level last season? And from the things that I could deduce, there wasn't a clear-cut reason.

There's a lot of head scratching in Washington right now on why they wanted to make that happen. There were a couple injuries, but nothing that was like, oh, man, that's really problematic, and he's never going to be able to regroup from that. So that's certainly in play. I think you're right to bring that name up. I think, you know, Buffalo,

Connor Montgomery, another guy that would be on the list. One of the guys I mentioned in my story, right when this happened, is Graham Glasgow, another release this month by the Detroit Lions, obviously familiarity with Ben Johnson, played guard, played center in Detroit. But it's my understanding that, like, you know, he's at the end, right? Like, I think he's 33 now. He's been beat up. And the sense I got from talking to some people is like he might be more inclined

to follow Drew Dolman to whatever golf course he's going. right now and say, okay, it's been great. Like, I'm out. I'm going to retire. So that one didn't seem like it would be, you know, front burner for the bears by any stretch. And so it looked like the other one, the other name that comes up in terms of an in-house candidate is Luke

Newman, who was, you know, a day three draft pick a year ago. The thing that I remind people of is, you know, two years ago, Luke Newman was the starting left tackle at Holy Cross. Okay. So like, this isn't a guy, you know, trained his whole life as a center, right? Like he moved to the interior of the line at Michigan State for one season. He got drafted. The Bears basically gave him the first opportunity to put the ball between his legs and snap it, right?

And say, like, let's try center for a little bit. So it's not like, you know, you're talking about a guy like Dalman, who was at like the pinnacle of the position and a guy who could handle everything as the quarterback of that offensive line. And you're taking a guy that you just kind of auditioning. I'm not saying Luke Newman doesn't have a future, but for a team that's trying to contend for the biggest prizes in 2026, that's certainly not plan A. know and so like let him compete let him let him you know work himself in as a potential backup option there but man that would that would feel really dangerous if you were you were going to go into o's with luke newman as your center one they made it clear to to us at the beginning of the season that that he was i remember i don't remember was ryan poles or ben johnson saying he could back up with the keywords being back up any position on the interior and i think when they say that they mean left guard and right guard not so much

the center position. So, yeah, well, I mean, we'll look forward to his development and see what he becomes, but I don't think that can be an answer. I don't understand why nobody's talking about Doug Kramer in this spot right now, Dan. I mean, he's very familiar with the locker room. He understands what's going on. He's a ball area before. He's had to football in his hands and it's lost it from his hand.

Where is Doug now? I don't know. Let me just take a look here and see it. Doug's got to be, you know he's playing somewhere. His lovely grandparents, who you had that elevator encounter with a couple years ago. They were wonderful people, honestly, sincerely wonderful people. They really were. Let's see.

Doug Kramer is right now. He is not playing right now. It does not appear. He was with the Seattle Seahawks in 2025. That's where he ended his season. Let's just see here. Oh, oh, check this out. Oh, my goodness.

All right. on January 14th, Kramer was selected by the Louisville Kings of the United Football League. Okay. So he's going, UFL. All right, Doug Kramer, do what you got to do, you know? Coming to a spring Sunday on NBC near you, right? Yeah. So now you know.

Now if you hear Doug Kramer's name, you heard it right here on Take the North. The other name, I guess, and I probably put this name in the same category as Luke Newman in terms of it's not going to happen, is a guy that you already mentioned on the show, one of the Bears' previous centers. That would be the 28-year-old James Daniels, who is available as well. Ryan Poles already let him go once, but I don't know. I mean, that was the one move that Ryan Poles made. Say that name again. It froze for a second.

Oh, you didn't hear. Oh, sorry. I didn't hear the name. James Daniels, the former second round pick for the Chicago Bears, who, as you pointed out, and I had forgotten that the man ever even did play some center for the Bears, which he did for the Bears and he did in Iowa. Drafted the same night as Anthony Miller. That's right.

I was very excited about both. I was a very excited about both. It was an exciting night, an exciting time at Hallisol back in those days. Yeah. They were building something. They were emerging. A new coach, young quarterback. Yeah.

Rob Juan Smith. So promising. It was a little Mac. I think you and I both both had the same affection for Anthony Miller, if I'm not mistaken, you were a big Anthony Miller guy, weren't you? It's one of my biggest mistakes, honestly. I definitely own that one as a guy that I thought was going to turn into much more than he turned out to be. And so I own that.

That is something. I thought that I thought, let's just put it this way. And I know you're going to brace yourself for this one. But I thought thoroughly in my heart that Anthony Miller's NFL emergence was on the half yard line. Oh. God, you just can't stop yourself, can you? Monster Energy. Everybody knows white monster, Zero Ultra.

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