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How First-Round Pick Dillon Thieneman Views His Chicago Bears Fit

The Bears didn't have a lot of predraft contact with the Oregon safety but they saw everything they needed to know at the combine and on tape.
Gene Chamberlain|
Dillon Thieneman poses with his parents Ken and Shannon Thieneman on the red carpet before the 2026 NFL Draft.
Dillon Thieneman poses with his parents Ken and Shannon Thieneman on the red carpet before the 2026 NFL Draft. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

Safety Dillon Thieneman wore the Bears hat well and even had a wild, big Bears chain on that someone in the crowd handed him Thursday, moments after being drafted 25th overall by the team.

Thieneman should feel right at home as a Bears player, since he did grow up playing in Indiana.

Bears Indiana stadium jokes aside, Thieneman grew up in Westfield, Ind., home of the Colts' training camp.

"I know a little bit about the Bears' history," he said. "I grew up not too far away from Chicago so I know a decent amount there.

What the Bears will find is they have a deep safety type who has multiple skills, great athletic ability, and is a student of the game.

What Breck Ackley Said About Thieneman

"Versatility, football character, I mean, really checked every box along the way," Bears college scouting director Breck Ackley said. "He goes to the combine, he blows it up. He matches what he shows on film. You get a chance to meet him, talk to him at the combine, and he is an all-football guy.

"Everything that you felt when you met him matched what the school said - both Purdue and Oregon. So it was just one of those deals where he checked every single box and there were really by the end of the process no questions about him. Obviously, it lined up."

Ackley said the Bears saw various types of roles filled perfectly by Thieneman throughout his career.

"If you go back to his Purdue tape '23, when he had six picks, I mean he's really got some center field range stuff," Ackley said. "You know, Oregon used him a little bit kind of in a rover role at times, in a different role.

"Safety is one of those positions where you really have to watch a lot of tape but there is plenty of snaps for him with his range, he can flip his hips, he can cover ground and then you add in the versatility, the run support, the physicality. I would say range stands out."

Oregon defensive back Dillon Thieneman brings down Texas Tech quarterback Behren Morton in the Orange Bowl.
Oregon defensive back Dillon Thieneman brings down Texas Tech quarterback Behren Morton in the Orange Bowl. | Ben Lonergan/The Register-Guard / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Oregon experience was crucial for Thieneman in that he did plenty of the thingds Bars defensive coordinator Dennis Allen demands in his scheme.

“At Purdue, I played mostly in the post, I was playing free safety there," he said. "But then Oregon, we played field and battery. And in Oregon’s defense, you’re asked to do a little bit of everything.

"I’m rolling down in the box, I’m rotating, different cover-3s. I’m playing the half (cover-2), quarters. I got really comfortable playing a lot of different coverages and different positions. Really good playing field, and then I could play boundaries. Doing those. And then I cross-trained nickel in the offseason, too, so I felt pretty comfortable moving between all those positions because I knew everything on the back end.”

The knowing is important to him. He has two notebooks every week for game week.

"I had a notebook just for opponent scouting, and I had a notebook where I wrote everything down," Thieneman said. "So I’d write everything in one notebook, and then I’d kind of compile it and what I needed to study and what I needed to know in another so I could study that before the game.”

His 4.35 speed from the combine was in the range of his goals, but maybe faster than even he expected.

"Going into the combine training, I set a goal of being 4.3,"  he said. "Then to go out there and do that, kind of surpassed even my expectations to the point. I knew in my heart I was going to get a 4.3 but I didn't know exactly what it would be.

"I feel like speed is very interesting because there's normal speed and then there's gameplan speed. So the more you can process and recognize, the faster you can play in-game closer to your speed."

Which explains all the studying and notebooks.

Little Troy

The studying also is reflective of one of the players he patterned his play after, Troy Polamalu.

" I liked watching some of his interviews,” Thieneman said. “If he knew where the ball was going, he would go switch positions with that player so he could be in on the play so he could have an impact for the team.

“Just having the knowledge of the defense, but also the understanding of what the offense is trying to do."

While the Bears feel they got their man, they didn't have a 30 visit with Thieneman. That’s consistent with how they use the visits to Halas Hall. They have said they don't usually give 30 visits unless they're doing it to answer questions about players.

There were no questions about Thieneman. The tape said it all.

“At the combine, I had a formal with them that went really well," he said. "I feel I really connected with all the guys there. And then, I hadn’t talked to them too much. But I knew that they had a lot of interest in me.

"That was kinda most of the conversations that we had."

Not much needed to be said. The Bears got their man and Thieneman is in a place where his strengths can be utilized.

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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.

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