A chip off the old blocker, Dalman follows dad’s path
Sometimes when David Shaw walks behind Drew Dalman to the practice field, he can’t help but notice a certain family resemblance.
Dalman walks just like his dad, Chris, Shaw’s teammate at Stanford in the early 1990s, and has some of the same mannerisms, the head coach said.
“It’s hard not to call him ‘Chris,’ ” Shaw said.
Like his dad, Drew was a two-way player at Palma-Salinas. Like his dad, he redshirted as a freshman at Stanford. He’d love to emulate his father’s great college and pro careers.
While center Jesse Burkett recovers from an undisclosed injury that threatens to keep him out of the first game or two, Dalman is competing with redshirt junior Brian Chaffin for the temporary starting job.
Chaffin probably has an edge in that he has handled the job in numerous short-yardage and goal-line situations. But Dalman is certainly in the picture.
“Drew Dalman has learned a lot and come a long way in a short period of time,” Shaw said, “for a guy that went from having to play all three (offensive-line positions) to really being in a battle to potentially start at center if Jesse doesn’t make it back. I’m very comfortable where those guys are right now.”
Dalman, who’s 6-foot-3, 279 pounds, was a toddler when his dad retired from the NFL after seven years with the 49ers. He was just 30 but had a serious neck injury that required several surgeries.
Chris Dalman was a secondyear backup center and guard when the 49ers picked up their fifth and most recent Super Bowl victory, crushing the San Diego Chargers 49-26 following the 1994 season. He would start at center the last five years of his career, making the playoffs four more times, but did not get back to the Super Bowl.
He spent two years as an assistant offensive line coach with the Atlanta Falcons, then coached the Stanford offensive line for two years under Jim Harbaugh.
“He was not super-talkative as a player, but he was outstanding,” Shaw said. “He could play anywhere from center to guard to tackle. … He came back in 2007 as offensive line coach and running game coordinator and was a great teacher, very methodical.”
Chris Dalman’s work with the line paved the way for the great running game that Stanford assembled around Toby Gerhart in 2008 and ’09.
“When you see Drew, as a coach’s kid, there’s an attention to detail,” Shaw said. “He takes coaching to heart. You can coach him hard, push him hard, because that’s what he wants.”
Drew Dalman said his dad was not a “hands-on” coach in his development.
“He always left it to me to seek out that extra coaching,” he said. “It was all about winning the mental game first and letting the physical part happen as it goes. You build those instincts, and it becomes second nature once you put yourself in the right spot mentally.”
Dalman said he enjoyed watching video of his dad and the 49ers in some playoff games.
“It helped me, knowing that I could see somebody every day that had done what I wanted to do, that had walked the same path from high school to college to the NFL,” he said. “That’s my goal.”
Dalman and Stanford backup quarterback Jack Richardson, son of former Cardinal linebacker Kevin Richardson and another Salinas resident, attended “a couple dozen” Stanford games as kids, he said.
In fifth grade, he said, his teacher assigned each student to “write a note to our future self.” He wrote that his biggest dream was to play football at Stanford.
Where’s that note now? “My mom probably has it,” Dalman said.