LAKE FOREST, Ill. \u2014 Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles passed up a chance to pick an offensive lineman or a pass rusher at No. 25 in Thursday night\u2019s NFL Draft, instead choosing to add speedy Oregon safety Dillon Thieneman to pair with free-agent addition Coby Bryant in a new-look safety unit that features speed and versatility. Both are necessary skills to have in the back of the defense when you still don\u2019t have enough up front.<\/p>\n
The pass rush was a noticeable weakness for Dennis Allen\u2019s defense last season, and Poles didn\u2019t do much to address it in free agency or through the trade market. Some top candidates were gone by the time the Bears picked. Can Poles find someone in the next two days of the draft, or will he have to hope for better production from incumbent players?<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, the D-line helps the back end more often than not,\u201d Poles said. \u201cBut 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
That plan worked last season, as safety Kevin Byard III and cornerback Nahshon Wright combined for 12 interceptions. But they\u2019re gone now, and the Bears need to figure out how they\u2019re going to get the ball back to Caleb Williams and the offense. Adding Bryant in free agency was a good move. Thieneman makes a lot of sense too, though many mock drafters had Chicago taking Toledo safety Emmanuel McNeil-Warren, who is still on the board for the second round. The Bears had Thieneman ranked higher, and Poles said in their mock-draft simulations, it was about 50-50 that he would fall to them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe talk about the board talking to you,\u201d Poles said. \u201cHe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Poles can talk up a storm about the team\u2019s process and the highly analytical ways it evaluates, grades and organizes draft picks, but all he had to say was that Ben Johnson liked Thieneman, and that\u2019s good enough for me.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was fired up,\u201d Poles said. \u201cHe 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 \u2026 I can now feel Ben. He doesn\u2019t say anything. I can feel his body language start to get excited by somebody. You can feel it. It\u2019s that style of play he has that\u2019s contagious. It\u2019s the type of player that we want on our football team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thieneman\u2019s range is a selling point. He and Bryant can play both safety positions, and they\u2019ll give Allen a lot to work with when he\u2019s designing game plans every week.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has versatility to play both free and strong,\u201d Bears college scouting director Breck Ackley said. \u201cBut the thing that stands out, if you go back to his Purdue tape in \u201923, when he had six picks, I mean, he\u2019s really got some center-field range stuff. You know, Oregon used him a little bit \u2026 kind of in a rover role at times, in a different role.\u201d<\/p>\n
Every draft is important, and if you comb through the Bears\u2019 checkered recent history in that regard, you can see why this team has only had five winning seasons since making the Super Bowl 20 years ago. That was also the last time they had consecutive winning seasons.<\/p>\n
With salary cap issues, nailing the draft is critical for this team to match or improve last year\u2019s dream season when the Bears won 11 games and beat Green Bay in the playoffs. They\u2019ve lost playmakers on defense \u2014 Byard, Wright, Jaquan Brisker and Tremaine Edmunds \u2014 along with receiver DJ Moore.<\/p>\n
Thieneman, the second-ranked safety after Caleb Downs on Dane Brugler\u2019s big board<\/a>, had six interceptions as a freshman at Purdue, none as a sophomore and two in his lone season at Oregon. One stood out, his game-ending pick in Oregon\u2019s 30-24 overtime win at Penn State in September.<\/p>\n Thieneman’s the man \ud83d\ude0e<\/p>\n Dillon Thieneman’s walk-off INT to lift @oregonfootball<\/a> to a 2-OT win at Penn State is our Week 5 \ud835\ude4b\ud835\ude61\ud835\ude56\ud835\ude6e \ud835\ude64\ud835\ude5b \ud835\ude69\ud835\ude5d\ud835\ude5a \ud835\ude52\ud835\ude5a\ud835\ude5a\ud835\ude60.<\/p>\n \ud83d\udccd @OldTrapper<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/KZh9lC6b0N<\/a><\/p>\n