Bears players better be ready to work when the offseason program begins in early April.

That's the message that first-year coach Ben Johnson sent during a press conference last week when asked how coaches could make the transition easier for the Bears' three new starting offensive linemen.

"It shouldn't be easy," Johnson said. "This should be hard. Spring should be hard. Training camp should be hard. Anything worth doing is hard, so it's going to take a lot of work, it's going to take a lot of effort.

"In particular, Year 1, we should not be comfortable as we're coming into springtime. We're going to load these guys up. We're going to see what they can handle. We're going to fail, and that's OK. That's part of how you learn and how you grow and you get better. We're going to encourage that as a coaching staff. Nothing about this is about making it easier, so it's going to be fun."

The Bears reconstructed their interior offensive line on the first two days of the new league year last week, trading for left guard Joe Thuney and right guard Jonah Jackson and signing center Drew Dalman in free agency.

Dalman was excited to hear what Johnson said about the task ahead.

"I feel like it's reality, so acknowledging that is awesome," Dalman said. "Just having someone who embraces challenges—that's what the NFL is all about—is really exciting. It makes us feel like we're going to approach everything head on. And it's good to fail and good to be aggressive and all those things, because when you're working at your fringe, that's when you're going to improve the most. Feeling that from the top down is exciting."

Dalman joins the Bears after spending his first four NFL seasons with the Falcons. Selected by Atlanta in the fourth round of the 2021 draft out of Stanford, he became a regular starter in his second season and has developed into one of the league's best centers.

The Bears acquired Thuney from the Chiefs in exchange for a 2026 fourth-round pick and Jackson from the Rams for a 2025 sixth-round choice.

Thuney has played nine NFL seasons with the Patriots (2016-20) and Chiefs (2021-24). He has won four Super Bowls—two with New England and two with Kansas City—has been named to the last three Pro Bowls and was chosen first-team All-Pro in 2023 and 2024.

Jackson has started 61 games in five seasons with the Lions (2020-23) and Rams (2024), earning a Pro Bowl invitation with Detroit in 2021 in Johnson's first of three seasons as Lions offensive coordinator.

With three new starters, the offensive line will begin building on-field cohesiveness when the Bears begin practicing in May.

"As an offensive line, you want to be a unit, see the game the same way, through the same set of eyes," Thuney said. "It starts early. It starts in OTAs and getting in the film room together and seeing the film together, seeing how we see things, then getting on the field and playing next to each other; seeing how we fit, how we communicate. A lot goes into it, but I think this group can be really good and [I'm] excited to meet all the guys and get going."

Thuney is just as eager to begin the assimilation process.

"The challenge is just how much work you can put in, how much studying you can do, how much preparation," he said. "All the things that are in our control. I feel like that makes it really exciting and something that we can just work at every day and will improve over time."