Bears’ Johnson talks about Dalman’s retirement and other changes

Bears head coach Ben Johnson met with reporters Monday morning at the NFL’s annual meeting in Phoenix.

Here are four of the most interesting things he said Monday.

On Drew Dalman’s retirement

Johnson said last year’s starting center approached him and general manger Ryan Poles around the middle of February to let them know that he was leaning toward retirement. After a couple weeks, the news broke at the beginning of March that Dalman decided to leave the sport at age 27.

“There’s naturally that selfish desire — no, no, no, I want to change his mind,” Johnson said. “But that’s not why we do what we do, also. We have to do what’s right for the team and the organization, but it’s also really important that his concerns are taken care of. You could tell pretty quickly that he’s a smart guy. This was not a rash decision.”

After looking at what was available both in free agency and the trade market, the Bears traded a 2027 fifth-round pick to the New England Patriots for Garrett Bradbury.

Johnson felt Bradbury would “fit us like a glove.” Bradbury has a good relationship with left guard Joe Thuney after they played at North Carolina State together.

“He’s going to fit what we like to do in the run game with our wide zone, running off the football,” Johnson said. “And when we watched him, we felt really good about what he did in pass pro as well. I think he’s going to be really what the doctor ordered for us in terms of — it’s hard to replace a guy like Drew. He had a Pro Bowl season and played really, really well, and yet we feel like Garrett is going to fit us really well also.”

On other key departures

No departures felt as big as trading veteran receiver DJ Moore and a 2026 fifth-round pick to the Buffalo Bills for a 2026 second-round pick.

Moore became a key leader after the team acquired him from the Carolina Panthers in a 2023 trade that involved that year’s No. 1 overall pick. He performed well on the field and was the team’s nominee for the Walter Payton Man of the Year award last season.

“I love DJ,” Johnson said. “Shoot, I got a little emotional when the trade happened and he came in and he made his rounds saying goodbye to the coaches and Ryan and his crew. It hurts because I viewed him as one of the leaders. Yet the business is the business. We had to make some decisions in terms of salary cap and things of that nature. I think the best thing for him is, he’s going to a great situation.”

The departures of Moore, safety Kevin Byard, linebacker Tremaine Edmunds and others left holes in leadership inside the Bears locker room.

“I think guys are going to step up,” Johnson said. “We’ve got some young players, Caleb being one of them, that have leadership qualities. It opens an opportunity for them to step to the forefront a little bit more. I also feel really good about some of these guys that we brought in.”

On the left tackle competition

The Bears thought they found a starter in Ozzy Trapilo when the rookie stepped up toward the end of the season and in the playoffs and played well. But Trapilo suffered an injury to his patellar tendon in the NFC Wild Card game in January.

“Obviously you’d love to have your long-term starter for the next 10 years locked up,” Johnson said. “There’s a lot of uncertainty right now though. We don’t know. Ozzy’s coming off a pretty serious injury. Not sure if we’ll have him next year or at what point he’ll come up. And so we’re going to have an opportunity right now for a lot of competition.”

The Bears brought back Braxton Jones and Theo Benedet, who both started games at left tackle. Chicago also signed Jedrick Wills Jr., a former top-10 pick, on a one-year deal.

“I think we’ve put ourselves in a really good situation to where, much like last year, we can go into this draft and stay true to our board and not force any pick,” Johnson said. “If there’s a tackle or a defensive tackle or a (defensive) end, I think we can go any direction we need to and stay true to that and feel pretty good about it.”

On Caleb Williams’, offense’s growth

Johnson did an exercise a couple weeks ago since the team added new coaches to the offensive coaching staff. He showed tape from the team’s Family Fest practice, which took place a week before Chicago’s first preseason game.

“Both those coaches ended up turning around, like ‘How did you guys wind up winning any games last year?’” Johnson recalled. “Like, they couldn’t believe it. Because we had already made it through about half the self-scout, and they saw what the actual plays in-season looked like and to see where we started was like wow. It’s an eye-opener.”

He brought up the example to illustrate how much further along Williams and the offense will be once they reconvene this spring and later in the summer for training camp.

With less time wasted on learning the fundamentals, Johnson felt confident Williams and the offense will get “cooking” quicker.

“The point is we’ve got to start there,” Johnson said. “We have to start there here in the springtime, and I think if we do we’ll see another big step for the entire unit.”