First-rounder Dillon needs to be a thrillin’ fill-in
To Edge or not to Edge?
To Safety first?
To “need” or to “fit”? Or to do neither and “best available” the whole thing and make all plans work from there? Because, recently, that seemed to be the Chef Poles Michelin-starred recipe.
The talk as it led up to Thursday’s Day 1 in the 2026 NFL Draft got louder and louder about Oregon’s Dillon Thieneman or Toledo’s Emmanuel McNeil-Warren being one of the dudes general manager Ryan Poles was going to pull the plug on when it came to the 25th pick. That one of them was going to be his guy, the one he trusts to be his “next best” find. The defensive equivalent of Luther Burden III, if you will. That kind of discovery.
But rumor had it that the Vikings had all eyes on Thieneman to be the sequel to their six-time All-Pro, 14-year safety Harrison Smith. Literally. Figuratively. Prototypically. Positionally. Racially. Draft-wise.
So the Bears had to look at other voids to fill with their first pick.
Other player’s names surfaced. Kadyn Proctor (OT), the wish. T.J. Parker (Edge), the gamble. Caleb Lomu (OT), the coulda. Dani Dennis-Sutton (Edge), the wild card. All parts of someone’s mock draft leading up to the Bears’ pick. Know that “mock” in many of these cases is short for “mockery.”
For the first time in four years, Chicago didn’t have a selection in the top 10 of the draft. This time they had a first-round pick that Marcus Spears or Mel Kiper Jr. didn’t talk a lot about. The last time the Bears drafted in the 20s of the first round was 2013, where at No. 20 they selected Kyle Long, who turned out to be a three-time Pro Bowl player while with the Bears.
Could it happen again?
History never really repeats itself, it just sequels. Sometimes in mysterious ways. Being on the clock that deep in the no man’s land of the first round can be either meaningless or meaningful. The Vikings flipped their own script on themselves. Drafting D-lineman Caleb Banks. So to make it meaningful, Thieneman got the Bears’ Day 1 call.
The Bears spoke of “silent tape” players who they were in search of. Players with “that dog in them” is what they sought. We won’t know until later whether Thieneman, Iowa center Logan Jones, Stanford tight end Sam Roush and LSU receiver Zavion Thomas are those finds.
Assistant GM Jeff King said as he sat in for Poles during the pre-draft presser before the draft: “As we head into this weekend, we’re prepared. We’ll be adaptable. We’ll make the best decisions for the team today and going forward. The goal by the end of the weekend is to add talent, competition, bring the right football players and the right character into the building.” The type of generalized scripted words ESPN football analyst Joey Galloway would probably counter with a “You don’t know [who you drafted] ’til a guy shows up.”
Shows up at your facility’s doorstep. In film study. On the field. In pads. When the ref blows the whistle. When a contract extension is on the line. Making this year’s selections — by placement alone on Days 1 and 2 — more of a gamble than any the Bears have made in recent memory.
For the Bears, it all came down to this as primary: How do you replace loss? Loss that comes with the cost of winning. How do you fill voids un-fillable in the moment when you need voids filled at that very moment? Kevin Byard III, Nahshon Wright, C.J. Gardner-Johnson and Jaquan Brisker, all gone. Not saying a rookie at any secondary position (safety, corner or nickel) is going replace any of those single losses let alone all four, but with the Bears last season leading the NFL in passing touchdowns allowed over 20 yards and second in the league in giving up any completions over 20 yards (but they did lead the NFL in takeaways and interceptions, so there’s that), you gotta start somewhere, right?
No pressure on Thieneman but his comps won’t be just Smith or Long — or John Lynch or Eric Weddle or Bears legends Gary Fencik or Doug Plank. Not for a team whose drop in first-round draft positioning is directly related to their suddenly achievable Super Bowl aspirations. Stakes is high surrounding all Halas Hall moves now. Even with a safety as a 25th pick in the draft.
And with the 24th pick of the 2002 NFL Draft, the Baltimore Ravens select, Ed Reed.
A sequel?