On her latest Making Monsters podcast, Taylor Doll sat down with Ryan Roberts, who covers the NFL Draft and College Football for A to Z Sports, and he had some thoughts on the Chicago Bears’ 2026 draft class. They kicked off the show discussing what Oregon safety Dillon Thieneman had to offer.
“There was a need for a guy that can be a little bit diverse,” Roberts said about the 25th overall pick, “and I think that the great thing about Thieneman is he’s had experience going back to the Purdue days
of playing single high free safety, where he’s playing from depth and then at Oregon he was asked to be a little bit more of like a short zone robber playing the box a whole lot more. So, he’s done a lot of different things, and then obviously he tested to kind of verify the range that we saw, especially his first couple years in college.”
“So, it’s an interesting fit because I think that he’s a very universally liked player because he doesn’t have to fit into one role, right? Like, I think that is a very interesting and important aspect of his game. Whether you are a two-high system, a single high system, whatever your preference is there, he can fit there.”
He goes on to discuss the ever-changing landscape of NFL defenses and the importance of versatile players.
“I think that when you talk about what the next evolution is defensively, Dillon Thieneman is like a bust-proof player because he can do a little bit of everything, right? Like, it’s not like you have to draft him to just play one specific position, one particular alignment. no matter where the league goes from here offensively or defensively, I think he is a universal player in terms of he can fit any system that you want to play, which I think is very valuable in today’s game.”
Taylor has had Roberts on her show before, and he really knows his stuff, so check it out in either of the embeds below for some insight into all the Bears’ rookies.
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