The Chicago Bears are left searching for a new center with reigning Pro Bowler Drew Dalman reportedly set to retire from the NFL at age 27. Dalman’s surprising exit from the league makes him the latest rising standout to step away earlier than expected and forces the Bears to revamp their offensive line for the second straight offseason. It also raises questions about why Dalman, fresh off the best year of his young career, chose now of all times to hang up the cleats.
When NFL stars retire early they often cite their current health or concerns about the long-term demands of football on their bodies. Dalman has yet to speak publicly on the matter, but if he explains that same reasoning, he will be far from the first player to leave some high-level play on the table to preserve his well-being.
There is no telling how long Dalman could have stood among the NFL’s top offensive linemen had he elected to continue playing. He played every offensive snap of the Bears’ 2025 season and allowed just one sack on Caleb Williams, and with two more years left on a $42 million contract, he was very much part of Chicago’s plans for the immediate future.
Those questions about what could have been are the greatest downsides of an early retirement. Numerous other young players before Dalman also stepped back from football in their 20s, leaving the NFL to wonder how great of heights they could have achieved had they stuck around for a few more years.
Here are other notable players who over the last decade announced surprising retirements in their 20s.
Andrew Luck
The writing was on the wall with Andrew Luck considering his injury history, but with his best football still potentially ahead of him, the former Indianapolis Colts quarterback shocked the world when he announced his retirement just two weeks before the start of the 2019 season. Nobody saw it coming considering the 29-year-old was fresh off arguably his best campaign and was merely days away from starting another.
Luck, a former No. 1 overall pick, took a beating throughout his career and missed the entire 2017 season with a nagging shoulder injury. He said those recurring injuries took the joy out of football for him and played a key role in his decision to retire. As undeniable as those shoulder issues were, though, Luck’s four Pro Bowl seasons indicated that he still likely could have played at an elite level had he elected to keep pushing.
Chris Borland
A promising rookie season is all the San Francisco 49ers got out of linebacker Chris Borland before he shockingly wrapped up his career at 24. Borland made his first start in Week 7 of the 2014 season and was off to the races from there. He racked up 18 tackles in his second start, 17 tackles two weeks later and closed the year with 107 to lead the team by a sizable margin. After the third-round pick earned an All-Rookie Team nod, most expected him to eventually flourish as one of the league’s most prominent linebackers.
Borland never stepped foot on an NFL field again, though. He announced his retirement just a couple of months later in March 2015 and chalked it up to concerns over CTE risk. He became a prominent voice to speak publicly about brain health in the years following his retirement.
Luke Kuechly
If not for the concussions Luke Kuechly sustained in the latter stages of his career, he could very well still be playing at a meaningful level in 2026. Instead, the former Carolina Panthers linebacker stepped away at the peak of his career as a 28-year-old star. He accomplished enough across an eight-year career to earn induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame but could have joined an even more elite fraternity of the greatest linebackers of all time had he played through the entirety of his prime.
Kuechly missed time with concussions in three consecutive seasons from 2015-17, and the 2013 NFL Defensive Player of the Year put his health before the additional accolades he could have earned by suiting up into his 30s.
Ali Marpet
A situation nearly identical to Dalman’s saw the Tampa Bay Buccaneers lose a rising offensive lineman in 2022. Ali Marpet, on the heels of his first Pro Bowl nod, called it quits at just 28. Marpet, who in 2015 became the highest-drafted Division III player of all time as the No. 61 overall pick, was a stalwart in the trenches who started at every position on the interior offensive line across seven seasons. He was the starting left guard on Tampa Bay’s 2021 Super Bowl team and left the NFL as a champion.
Marpet said that he “didn’t want any more” of football’s physical toll, be it the aches and pains or the unknowns of head trauma.
Frank Ragnow
Dalman is not the first center to play for coach Ben Johnson and announce a surprisingly early retirement. Just last year, former Detroit Lions lineman Frank Ragnow called it a career at 29. He anchored an offensive line that produced one of the NFL’s most threatening rushing attacks of late and picked up three All-Pro selections across his seven years in the Motor City. Ragnow was a model of consistency who started all 96 games in which he played.
Ragnow said in his retirement announcement that he “tried to convince” himself that he felt good enough to continue playing, but he said he had nothing left to give. He attempted to come out of retirement late last season but failed a physical with the Lions and watched the final few weeks of the campaign from home.
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