Bears add secondary help, draft
Oregon safety Dillon Thieneman with No. 25 pick in NFL draft
[April 24, 2026]
By ANDREW SELIGMAN
LAKE FOREST, Ill. (AP) — There were a number of directions the
Chicago Bears could have gone in the first round of the NFL draft.
They opted to give their secondary a boost.
Chicago took a safety in the first round for the first time in 36
years when they selected Oregon's Dillon Thieneman with the No. 25
pick on Thursday night.
“He’s a violent football player,” general manager Ryan Poles said.
“He strikes. There’s a knock-back element to his tackling.”
The Bears hadn't drafted a safety in the first round since 1990,
when they took Marc Carrier with the No. 6 pick out of USC.
Thieneman is the first defensive player taken in the first round by
Chicago since linebacker Roquan Smith in 2018. He joins a team
trying to build on a breakthrough year, after winning the NFC North
in coach Ben Johnson's first season.
Chicago also has two second-rounders, a third-rounder, a
fourth-rounder and two seventh-rounders.
The Bears lost their top four safeties, including three-time All-Pro
Kevin Byard and Jaquan Brisker. They signed Coby Bryant, who helped
Seattle win its second Super Bowl, to a three-year, $40 million
contract, but still had an opening at that position.
Thieneman grew up near Indianapolis in Westfield, Indiana, and
starred at Purdue for two years before transferring to Oregon last
season. He earned first-team All-Big Ten honors and helped the Ducks
go 13-2 while advancing to the College Football Playoff semifinals.
He finished with 95 tackles and two interceptions, including the
clinching pick in a double-overtime win at Penn State in late
September.
The 6-foot, 201-pound Thieneman is known for his speed, versatility
and ability to recognize what the other team is trying to do. He ran
a 4.35-second 40-yard dash at the combine and can play both safety
spots as well as nickelback.
“I feel like speed is very interesting because there’s normal speed
and then there’s gameplan speed,” Thieneman said. "So the more you
can process and recognize, the faster you can play in-game closer to
your speed.”
Thieneman kept two notebooks — one for scouting the opponent and the
other containing everything he needed to know.
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Oregon defensive back Dillon Thieneman poses with a jersey after
being chosen by the Chicago Bears with the 25th overall pick during
the first round of the NFL football draft, Thursday, April 23, 2026,
in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
“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,” he said.
Poles said Thieneman's character is “off the
charts.”
“We have so many good sources in terms of guys he’s played with —
that’s all the way from Westfield High School all the way to
Oregon," he said. "The feedback we got was incredible. ... He’s a
very similar type person, player, combination to what (tight end)
Colston (Loveland) was. The work ethic, that passion for ball was
off the charts. We grade on a scale of one to nine. There’s no fives
and there’s no twos. There’s no fence grades. There’s a lot of
sevens and eights when you look across this guy’s character. Really
happy with the type of person we’re bringing in.”
The Bears went 11-6 and captured the division
championship for the first time since 2018 last season. Quarterback
Caleb Williams, the No. 1 pick in 2024, made big strides in his
first year in Johnson's offense. Chicago advanced in the playoffs
for the first time since the 2010 season, beating the rival Green
Bay Packers in a wild-card game before losing an overtime thriller
to the Los Angeles Rams in the divisional round.
The Bears still have needs at left tackle and in the pass rush. They
could be addressed the next two days.
“Lotta good options,” Poles said. “I’ll say this, this was probably
the most aggressive they were in terms of the guys that we really
like. They have to play our style. They’ve gotta have the right
makeup. In terms of our scheme fits, all of that had to be there. If
it wasn’t there, you’re off the board.”
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