{"id":873531,"date":"2026-04-24T13:24:35","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T13:24:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/873531\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T13:24:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T13:24:35","slug":"ryan-poles-perfectly-explains-bears-landing-steal-of-the-draft-dillon-thieneman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/873531\/","title":{"rendered":"Ryan Poles perfectly explains Bears landing steal of the draft Dillon Thieneman"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5q\">Chicago Bears fans went to bed happy to see that their team landed one of the top defensive backs in the 2026 NFL Draft, as it all lined up perfectly for general manager Ryan Poles.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5t\">With the 25th overall pick of the draft, the <a href=\"https:\/\/beargoggleson.com\/dillon-thieneman-brought-bears-draft-dream-no-one-thought-possible\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bears selected Oregon safety Dillon Thieneman<\/a>. It was a move popular among the fan base and one everyone was hoping to see. Poles explained at his press conference why the team selected Thieneman.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5w\">\u201cThis was a really cool opportunity where the (positional) need and best player available fell to us,\u201d Poles said via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.audacy.com\/thescorechicago\/sports\/chicago-bears\/in-drafting-dillon-thieneman-bears-get-instant-impact-at-a-position-of-need\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">The Score&#8217;s Chris Emma<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Ryan Poles is happy about getting Dillon Thieneman, and he should be<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"62\">Poles have every right to be excited about landing Thieneman, especially since he wasn&#8217;t even supposed to be there. Most mock drafts have him going to their division rival, the Minnesota Vikings, or sooner, but Ohio State&#8217;s Caleb Downs was the only safety picked within the first 24 selections before Thieneman.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"65\">The Bears aren&#8217;t going to ponder on it as they are counting themselves lucky they landed on a great talent. Thieneman was a first-team All-American and first-team All-Big Ten selection last season as he had 92 tackles, five pass deflections, two interceptions, and one sack for the Ducks.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"68\">Chicago had a need at safety after losing Kevin Byard and Jaquan Brisker in free agency, and needed a sidekick for <a href=\"https:\/\/beargoggleson.com\/chicago-bears-found-their-perfect-jaquan-brisker-replacement-with-coby-bryant\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">free agent signing Coby Bryant<\/a>. Thieneman seems to match the style of play needed for the Bears&#8217; defense, serving as a lethal weapon in pass coverage and run-stopping.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6b\">Read more: <a href=\"https:\/\/beargoggleson.com\/chicago-bears-fans-are-still-laughing-at-minnesota-vikings-for-passing-on-dillon-thieneman\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bears fans are still laughing at Vikings for passing on Dillon Thieneman<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6e\">This defense in the Windy City is already looking a lot better after the Thieneman selection, making Poles look like a genius. Now, what Poles does on Day 2 could determine even further how good this roster can be for a potential Super Bowl run in 2026.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow beargoggleson.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=beargoggleson.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\">Follow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chicago Bears fans went to bed happy to see that their team landed one of the top defensive&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":873532,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2070],"tags":[374,692,391,2493,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-873531","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-bears","8":"tag-bears","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-chicago-bears","11":"tag-chicagobears","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116459908513172785","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=873531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/873532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=873531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=873531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=873531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}