Well, that didn't take long.
The Chicago Bears have agreed to a trade with the New England Patriots to acquire center Garrett Bradbury, as first reported by NFL Network's Ian Rapoport. ESPN's Adam Schefter confirmed the compensation: Chicago is sending a 2027 fifth-round pick to New England in exchange for Bradbury. The trade cannot become official until the start of the new league year on Wednesday, March 11.
It's been three days since Drew Dalman stunned the Bears by retiring at 27—walking away from $24 million remaining on a contract he signed barely a year ago. We detailed the fallout extensively in our offseason needs breakdown at center, where the options ranged from Tyler Linderbaum's $20-plus million price tag to mid-tier free agents like Tyler Biadasz and Connor McGovern. Biadasz has since agreed to terms with the Chargers, taking the Bears' top free-agent target off the board. Ryan Poles chose a different path entirely—and a much cheaper one.
Who Is Garrett Bradbury?
Bradbury is a former first-round pick—18th overall by the Minnesota Vikings in the 2019 NFL Draft out of NC State, where he won the Rimington Trophy as the nation's top center and didn't allow a single sack in over 900 snaps as a senior. He's also a former college teammate of Bears guard Joe Thuney, who played at NC State before being drafted by the Patriots in 2016. Bradbury spent six seasons in Minnesota, starting all 88 games he appeared in, before the Vikings released him in March 2025.
He landed in New England on a two-year deal worth up to $12 million and immediately stepped into the starting lineup. Bradbury started all 17 regular-season games and all four postseason games for the Patriots in 2025—including Super Bowl LX, a 29–13 loss to Seattle. That's 105 career regular-season starts and counting. Whatever else you can say about him, the man does not miss games.
He's 30 years old—he'll turn 31 in June—and his 2025 PFF grades were middling: a 60.1 overall mark that ranked 30th out of 40 qualified centers, with a 63.1 pass-blocking grade (23rd) and a 56.2 run-blocking grade (35th). This is not Drew Dalman. It's not Tyler Linderbaum. But at a $3.7 million base salary and the cost of a late-round pick two drafts from now, Bradbury doesn't need to be. There's also reason for optimism about his production improving in Chicago. Bradbury will be flanked by Joe Thuney and Jonah Jackson—two of the better guards in football—which is a significant upgrade over the interior help he had in New England. A rising tide lifts all boats, and playing between a former All-Pro and a Pro Bowl-caliber guard should make Bradbury's job considerably easier than it was in 2025.
What This Means for the Bears
The Bradbury trade does two things simultaneously: it fills the most urgent hole on the roster, and it does so without blowing up the cap math that Poles needs to address every other position on the to-do list.
The Linderbaum dream was always a long shot. As we detailed in Part 3.5, a deal in the $20 million per year range would have consumed all of the cap relief created by Dalman's retirement and then some—leaving nothing for the safety, defensive tackle, edge rusher, and left tackle needs that were already on the board. Trading a future fifth-round pick and absorbing a $3.7 million salary is about as cap-friendly as a starting center acquisition can get. For reference, Dalman's cap hit was going to be $14 million. The Bears just replaced him—at least on paper—for roughly a quarter of the cost.
That's critical, because the offseason shopping list is still long. The Bears have zero safeties under contract. The interior defensive line allowed 5.0 yards per carry. Montez Sweat still needs a running mate at edge rusher. Ozzy Trapilo's torn patellar tendon means left tackle is a gaping hole. And yesterday, the DJ Moore trade freed up $16.5 million in cap space that needs to be deployed elsewhere. Every dollar Poles saved at center is a dollar he can spend on the defense.
NFC North Familiarity
There's one more wrinkle worth noting. Bradbury spent six seasons snapping the ball for the Minnesota Vikings from 2019 to 2024. He's played in every NFC North stadium, against every NFC North defensive line, in every kind of weather the division throws at you. He knows the Packers' front. He knows the Lions' defensive tackles. He knows the Vikings' scheme—the team that decided he wasn't worth keeping. Whether that familiarity translates to better play in 2026 is an open question, but it certainly doesn't hurt the transition.
Why New England Made the Move
The Patriots were always heading in this direction. They drafted Georgia center Jared Wilson in the third round (95th overall) of the 2025 NFL Draft with exactly this succession plan in mind. Wilson started 13 games at left guard as a rookie and started in Super Bowl LX, but center is his natural position—he was a one-year starter there at Georgia and was widely regarded as the best center prospect in last year's draft class. With Bradbury's guaranteed money fully paid out, the Patriots save approximately $6 million in cap space by moving him, clearing room for their own free-agency push. Wilson is expected to slide to center and take over as the starter in 2026.
The Bottom Line
This isn't a flashy move. Bradbury isn't going to make anyone forget about Drew Dalman's Pro Bowl season, and his PFF grades suggest he's a league-average center at best. But Poles didn't need to hit a home run here. He needed to fill a hole quickly, cheaply, and without sacrificing the draft capital or cap space required to fix the defense. A 2027 fifth-round pick and $3.7 million accomplishes exactly that.
The Bears have a veteran center who has started 105 career games, played in a Super Bowl three weeks ago, and knows the NFC North. They still have their first-round pick, their new second-rounder from the Moore trade, and significantly more cap flexibility than they'd have if they'd gone to war for Linderbaum or McGovern. Whether Bradbury is the long-term answer or a bridge to a draft pick remains to be seen. But for right now, the most urgent hole on the offensive line has been patched—and the rest of the offseason can proceed as planned.
Legal tampering opens Monday. Free agency starts Wednesday. The clock is still ticking—but center is no longer the alarm going off.
This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.