The first round of the NFL Draft broke perfectly for the Chicago Bears when Oregon safety Dillon Thieneman fell. The Bears were able to stay at 25 and draft the best player available while filling a roster hole.
“It just happened for this one that the sequence landed right on a need,” General Manager Ryan Poles said about their draft board. “So he’s (Thieneman) going to have the ability to come in and compete for a starting role, and obviously that’s going to be an open spot where those guys are going to compete, and the tape tells us he’s going to have a really good opportunity to do that. But this was a really cool opportunity where again a need and best player available fell the way that we needed it to.”
The Bears needed a starting safety to play next to Coby Bryant, and Thieneman is one of the best and most versatile prospects to come around in a while.
We asked our fans to grade the pick, and most of you went with an A, which is how I voted.
Chicago’s defense got better yesterday, and following the pick, the Bears are +2,500 to win the Super Bowl, per FanDuel Sportsbook.
Let’s take a look around the interwebs to see how some analysts graded the pick.
“Thieneman can play as a center fielder,” wrote NFL.com’s Chad Reuter while giving the pick an A, “but he’s versatile enough to move into the box as a run defender. It’s a marriage made in football heaven.
The USA Today’s Michael Middlehurst-Schwartz gave the pick at A while writing, “The interceptions might not trickle in as easily as they did during his freshman season at Purdue, but Thieneman shouldn’t take long to establish his playmaker credentials.”
CBS Sports’ Mike Renner gave the Bears a B while stating that “Thieneman is exactly the kind of player the Bears were looking for this offseason,” and that he’ll be a “Day 1 starter for Chicago.”
This is another pick that was mocked incessantly in the lead-up to the draft, and it makes a whole lot of sense. Thienemen is a great athlete with a lot of smarts who was able to immediately jump into Oregon’s starting lineup and be a plus player for the Ducks. He joins a talented defensive backfield that will likely be the spine of the defense once again this season.
Was it mocked incessantly?
Almost every mock I came across had him gone before 25, but whatever.
The Athletic’s Scott Dochterman gave the pick an A+, writing that “Thieneman can do it all for the Bears — he’s a hitter, can cover anyone … This is a big-time win for GM Ryan Poles, and it’s my favorite pick of the first round.”
We’ll end this grades round-up on another positive note!
Pro Football Focus’ Ben Linsey didn’t hand out grades, but he put each pick in a category, and only two prospects earned an Elite grade from last night: Edge Rueben Bain Jr., who went to the Buccaneers, and Chicago’s Dillon Thieneman.
Thieneman didn’t often make it to Chicago in mock drafts, but the Bears will certainly be happy he was available here. Thieneman earned 89.0-plus PFF grades on multiple defenses — 2023 with Purdue and 2025 with Oregon — and can cover, defend the run and bring high-end athleticism. Given that the Bears came into this draft with a clear need at safety, this is an ideal scenario for Dennis Allen’s defense.
