ABC7 Chicago is now streaming 24\/7. Click here to watch<\/a><\/p>\nThieneman was an All-American this past season at Oregon. He also played at Purdue.<\/p>\n
He fills an immediate need for the Bears and will compete for a starting slot.<\/p>\n
Bears fans are buzzing about the draft, feeling pretty confident ahead of next season.<\/p>\n
Several NFL experts are calling the Dillon Thieneman pick the best of the night for any team and they’re hoping that momentum continues Friday night.<\/p>\n
Bears fans are excited and optimistic this morning with the Monsters of the Midway first round pick.<\/p>\n
“I think it was a great pick,” Bears fan Joel Dziedzic said. “Based on what was there I think he’s going to do very well.”<\/p>\n
“He’s going to bring some fresh blood to the team and he’s got swagger that we need to that we all love in Chicago,” Bears fan Victoria Maclean said.<\/p>\n
No stranger to the Midwest, Dillon Thieneman hails from Indiana.<\/p>\n
The Bears were determined to get faster on defense and Dillon certainly helps them do just that.<\/p>\n
He’s got great closing speed and is expected to be a perfect complement to line up alongside Coby Bryant at safety.<\/p>\n
“Some speed that we need back in the safety, defensive backs,” Bears fan Daryl Glaz said. “I’m happy with it. I think he was the best one. A lot of people didn’t think he was gonna be around. But we got a steal.”<\/p>\n
At 6 feet – 201 pounds, the Indianapolis native was Big 10 “Freshman of the Year” at Purdue the first of two seasons with the Boilermakers, before transferring to Oregon last year, hoping to step up his game for this NFL opportunity.<\/p>\n
“I feel like making the leap to Oregon was kind of preparing me for the next level already, like I’m going to a new place, new coaches, new scheme, new environment,” Thieneman said. “So I’m kind of used to that change, and I know how to make it and what works for me and what doesn’t. So I’m kind of able to grow from that last experience. And I think hit the ground running.”<\/p>\n
The Bears said he checked all the boxes, so they’re thrilled to make him their first round pick in this year’s draft.<\/p>\n
“He was standing out, elevated on the board,” Bears GM Ryan Poles said. “We kind of work lateral to see who’s up there. And he was the number one 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.”
His head coach at Oregon said Thieneman is the best safety he’s ever coached, which says a lot.<\/p>\n
Thieneman will be at Halas Hall later Friday as fans wish for more stellar selections Friday night.<\/p>\n
“I think we still need defensive players so defensive end, defensive tackle that would be great,” Dziedzic said.<\/p>\n
“Keep up with the defense,” Glaz said. “I think the office has been great. It’s been explosive as it is. We need more defense line edge somebody get at the quarterback of the other team. None of sacks last year.”<\/p>\n
Fans said they’re hopeful this team has Super Bowl potential.<\/p>\n
The Bears will be back on the clock to make three more picks Friday night during rounds 2 and 3. The Bears are currently set to pick twice in the second round and once in the third round.<\/p>\n
You can catch rounds two and three of the draft here on ABC 7. Our 6 p.m. newscast will be available wherever you stream ABC 7. The draft wraps up Saturday.<\/p>\n
Copyright \u00a9 2026 WLS-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO (WLS) — Bears top draft pick Dillon Thieneman is headed to Chicago. The highly-touted safety is expect…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":873640,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2070],"tags":[118382,374,692,391,2493,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-873639","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-bears","8":"tag-118382","9":"tag-bears","10":"tag-chicago","11":"tag-chicago-bears","12":"tag-chicagobears","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116460615333888728","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873639","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=873639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/873640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=873639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=873639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=873639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}