Skip to main content
Bear Digest

GM Ryan Poles Views Dillon Thieneman Pick for Bears Like a 2025 Selection

Versatility, scheme fit, and a violent playing style led the Bears GM to draft Oregon's safety for a vacant starting spot when defensive linemen were available.
Gene Chamberlain|
Ryan Poles makes a point about Dillon Thieneman on draft night at Halas Hall.
Ryan Poles makes a point about Dillon Thieneman on draft night at Halas Hall. | Chicago Bears On SI Photo: Chicago Bears video

In this story:

Chicago Bears

Bears general manager Ryan Poles looked at safety Dillon Thieneman and saw tight end Colston Loveland.

Well, not literally, but many of the same traits were there except on the opposite side of the football, and it made Thieneman an easy selection in Round 1 at No. 25 all things considered. The main thing considered was they had no second starting safety.

"He’s a very similar type person, player, combination to what Colston was," Poles said. "The work ethic, that passion for ball was off the charts. We grade on a scale of 1-9. There’s no 5s and there’s no 2s. There’s no fence grades.

"There’s a lot of 7s and 8s when you look across this guy’s character. Really happy with the type of person we’re bringing in."

Where Loveland was a player coach Ben Johnson needed to make his attack work, Thieneman is the type of versatile safety defensive coordinator Dennis Allen needs to make his scheme work.

As a result, Poles felt entirely comfortable going to the secondary instead of defensive line in Round 1, and apparently Johnson did as well.

Ben Johnson like what he saw

"He was fired up," Poles said of Johnson. "We’ve spent time together. He would come in and watch tape with our group. This is one of the guys that we had on when he was in. I mean, we both … I can now feel Ben. He doesn’t say anything. I can feel his body language start to get excited by somebody.

"You can feel it. It’s that style of play he has that’s contagious. It’s the type of player that we want on our football team."

Poles foresees the addition of Thieneman into a secondary with Kyler Gordon, Coby Bryant, Jaylon Johnson and Tyrique Stevenson as a continuation of last year's league-leading takeaway total.

"Obviously there was a lot of turnovers," he said of their 33 takeaways. "You can increase that number, which is going to be a big challenge for those guys.

"But like I said, taking the air out, every time we’ve seen a defense and you feel like it’s suffocating because of the speed, that’s what we’re trying to do."

Thieneman's 4.35-second speed in the 40 and his cerebral approach to the game are fine, but Poles definitely didn't see him as a safety who someone would tag with a finesse label.

A hitter

"He’s a violent football player," Poles said. "He strikes. There’s a knock-back element to his tackling and again, there’s speed and there’s violent speed in terms of just the explosion off the spot and that’s what he brings.

"It’s pretty easy tape to watch.”

As the picks were coming off, Poles and the Bears personnel and coaches waited anxiously. Thieneman had been a player projected by most mock drafts to go five to 10 picks earlier. Yet, here he was available.

"We talk about the board talking to you," Poles said. "He was standing out. He was elevated on the board. We kind of work lateral and see who else is up there and he was No. 1 on our priority list. We take the board obviously before all this kicks off and we sequence it and he was the top sequence guy on our board.”

The Bears personnel department runs through its own mock drafts and Poles couldn't say they were convinced they'd get a chance to draft Thieneman.

"It was 50/50 with him oftentimes, so we weren’t sure if he was going to make it," Poles said. "Eighteen seemed to be the (draft) spot that everyone said that he was going to.

"We knew if he got past that there was a good chance."

The Vikings were taking 18th and safety was one alternative for them. Instead, they took Florida defensive tackle Caleb Banks, the massive lineman with tremendous upside and a questionable foot. Thieneman was probably a fit for only one of the other draft spots before the Bears after the Vikings, but not an idea one. He was ideal for the Bears, who needed another safety starter

"Again, in our sequence we had probably two more guys that were close (in grade to Thieneman," Poles said. "So we knew that we were going to get a good football player.

"I drew a line on our top 100 of ones that we would be looking to trade back, trade up, and it fell where we had a couple guys there in the sequence. We looked to potentially move back a little bit; there wasn’t much interest right behind us where we felt comfortable in terms of the numbers."

Poles isn't giving up on getting defensive line help on Day 2.

Dillon Thieneman (31) helps tackle Texas Tech Red Raiders running back J'Koby Williams in a quarterfinal playoff game.
Dillon Thieneman (31) helps tackle Texas Tech Red Raiders running back J'Koby Williams in a quarterfinal playoff game. | Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

Defensive line for Day 2?

"I think there's some opportunity for guys on the board still," he said.

However, the defensive front's main goal now is improving from within.

"And then absolutely, just what these guys are working on this week (at conditioning) was for that group to continue to get better so they can be more effective," Poles said. "I know the coaches spend a lot of time in the offseason detailing spots where they feel like we can get better, maybe some tweaks in what we're doing, the way we're coaching things. And then, naturally, just a second year in the system, you would think that some of these guys would continue to get better and elevate their game.

"And then if you help the secondary like, you know, they're related to a degree. Obviously the D-line helps the back end more often than not. But in this situation where, we have good corners, good safeties, we can be in a position where maybe we can have the quarterback hold the ball a little longer."

That's probably not ideal, even if it sounds good at the moment. Pressure helps players like Thieneman in the back to make plays on the ball.

Poles had called defensive end a place where there were good numbers prior to the draft. Now they have to hope this holds up.

"Now, there's some historical numbers that I have that makes me feel confident that there's gonna be guys that we like still available to us," Poles said. "Thankfully the numbers are high enough where I'll be able to sleep a little bit tonight."

More Chicago Bears News

X: BearsOnSI

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Loading recommendations... Please wait while we load personalized content recommendations

Published
Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.

Home/Draft