Out with Kevin Byard and Jaquan Brisker. In with Coby Bryant and Dillon Thieneman. Did Chicago Bears General Manager Ryan Poles simply reload at the Safety position, or did he restock with a completely new product?
Like most of you, I was ecstatic when former Oregon Ducks Safety Dillon Thieneman fell to pick 25 in the NFL draft last month. His skillset was universally lauded as one of the most versatile of any Safety in the country, and his pairing with new Bear, Coby Bryant, gives Defensive Coordinator
Dennis Allen myriad options on the back end.
But have we seen a pair of safeties in Chicago like this before? That is exactly the question I posited both the night of the draft and again on Bears Over Beers last week with my Co-Host Ryan Droste.
After a brief review of starting Safety tandems of the last 40 years, the quick answer to that question is simply:
No.
While we had Eddie Jackson, largely considered one of the best free safeties in recent memory, paired for a season with another free safety, Ha-Ha Clinton Dix, that was at the tail-end of Clinton Dix’s career, and he had already lost a step in what would ultimately be the last time he ever started a game. After that, BoJack was joined by another aging veteran in Tashaun Gipson, who was more of a rangy free safety earlier in his career but morphed into more of a strong safety type by the time he was with Chicago. Though Gipson would move on and play his final three seasons with the 49ers, including one at FS, where he would collect 5 INTs, that seemed more exception than the rule and felt more due to the elite defense in front of him than any fountain of youth magic.
Eddie paired with a young Adrian Amos was fun, but Amos was never much of a ball hawk or an impact player in coverage.
What about before BoJack?
Chris Conte and Major Wright come to mind, but Wright was more of a strong safety himself. Though both players were above-average athletes, they were closer to average players who lacked the skill sets to be consistent difference-makers in the secondary. That said, I would argue they might be the most underrated Safety tandem in Bears history.
Speaking of underrated, Mike Brown may be the most underrated NFL Safety of the entire 2000’s, but injuries not only derailed his illustrious career, but also his chance to play alongside another underrated Bear in Danieal Manning during the Super Bowl XLI season. Manning had the range and stickiness in coverage like Dillon Thieneman projects to have, and Mike Brown was every bit the student of the game Coby Bryant is, but Brown and Manning could never stay healthy at the same time, and the injuries eventually deteriorated Brown’s abilities.
Tony Parrish is one of my all-time favorite Bears, but it wasn’t until he went to San Francisco that he ever had more than 3 INTs and was known for more than how much it looked like he could bench press. Standing at 6’0” and 210 pounds, Parrish made over 100 tackles in just his second season including 7 Tackles for a Loss and 7 pass deflections. However, his first year as a 49er, the former Washington Husky notched 7 INTs on his way to 20 INT in his first three seasons in the Bay area!
In Chicago, you would have to go all the way back to the 80s and 90s with Dave Duerson and Gary Fencik or Mark Carrier and Shaun Gayle to find more complementary safeties in play-style and scheme versatility, but even then, there seemed to be more of a traditional strong and free safety vibe when watching them alternate crushing hits on opponents.
Can Coby Bryant and rookie Dillon Thieneman make a mark similar to what “The Hitmen” did en route to a Super Bowl Shuffle and eventual Super Bowl victory? Or perhaps scratch the record books like Mark Carrier did as a rookie when he snagged 10(!) INTs?
Time will tell. But did you know that Dillon Thieneman is the first round 1 safety drafted by the Bears since Mark Carrier? While it is certainly too early to make any declarations, it’s clear that two similarly gifted athletes in the prime of their athletic careers at safety is not something we have seen in Chicago in quite some time. I cannot wait to see how Dennis Allen deploys them this season and what kind of stress they put on opposing quarterbacks.
Cheers, Bears fans. This is a new era of Bears football after all. Buckle up.
Now, if we can just figure out this pass rush…
