Our next training camp battle may not be a battle at all, but any time a rookie is expected to start, there’s always an opportunity that a veteran starts in September and the rookie doesn’t start until later in the season.
When we approached the 2026 NFL Draft, everyone was pretty confident the Bears would be selecting a defensive player in the first round of the draft. Most were expecting the pick to be defensive line because there was an obvious need there. But there was another obvious need at
safety, where the Bears let Kevin Byard and Jaquan Brisker walk after last season and really only replaced one with Coby Bryant. The other safety the Bears brought in was Cam Lewis, but that felt more like a replacement for Jonathan Owens.
The Bears needed a safety in the draft, and there were a couple of good ones with first-round grades; one of them, Oregon’s Dillon Thieneman, seemed like the perfect fit for Dennis Allen’s scheme, but nobody thought Thieneman was going to get out of the top 20. But suddenly, the two teams that were expected to take Thieneman, the Vikings and Panthers, chose to go different directions, and suddenly, the Bears were only a few picks away, and Thieneman kept inching closer and closer to them.
When the Bears were on the clock and Thieneman was there, it seemed like a no-brainer, and the Bears ran the card in. The Bears were in the rare position to take the true BPA on the board, and that player was at a position of need.
Thieneman should be a lock to start at safety week one against the Carolina Panthers, right? Not necessarily.
Cam Lewis is a legitimate NFL player. He may not be a star, but he can play football. Lewis started 10 games over the last two seasons for the Buffalo Bills, one of the league’s top teams that won 25 regular-season games over that span.
We’ve also seen last year that Ben Johnson doesn’t hand starting spots to rookies. Ozzy Trapillo didn’t start immediately. Luther Burden didn’t start immediately. Colston Loveland was announced as the team’s starting tight end, but the Bears announced their depth chart in 12 personnel, so Cole Kmet was also a starter. In week one, Kmet had 60 snaps to Loveland’s 38.
Based on the small sample size we have, there’s no guarantee that Thieneman will be handed the starting safety spot.
Don’t get me wrong, I do expect Thieneman to start week one against the Panthers, but I think the media and fans are just assuming it to be a fact, and he’s going to have to earn it over Lewis.
The Bears want to see it happen too, as Thieneman was playing with the second-team defense during OTAs and minicamp.
The expectation is for Thieneman to start, and it should be, but if he struggles at all during training camp to pick up the defensive scheme, don’t be shocked if Lewis starts the first few games of the year before Thieneman takes over full-time.
