Bears Rookie Projected to Beef Up Lineup Where They Need It Most

The Chicago Bears had a Cinderella season under first-head head coach Ben Johnson for 2025-26, but they didn’t go all the way. That could change next season.

Looking at the 2026-27 NFL rookie class, one player who stands out is safety Dillon Thieneman, whom Johnson and the Bears smartly picked up for their roster.

Even though the season is more than four months away, Thieneman is already making noise in the NFL and was just named one of the most promising rookies of the upcoming season.

Tom Blair of the NFL’s official website has a piece out on Tuesday, May 5, looking 10 rookies who could strongly succeed in their first year in the NFL and going forward.

“The pipeline of prospect analysis has been cut off. All the anticipation over what could happen gave way to the excitement of selections and trades actually happening, and now it’s all in the history books,” Blair states. “This portion of the calendar can feel a tad short on fuel for football obsessives.”

He picks Thieneman as the No. 6 player most likely to succeed in the upcoming season.

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“Thieneman looks ready to take on a good chunk of the load in Dennis Allen’s secondary,” he states in the piece. Elsewhere, he adds that Thieneman could have a “golden opportunity to help power a return trip to the playoffs for Chicago.”

My Take: Dillon Thieneman and the Chicago Bears

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Johnson and Caleb Williams have built an offense that looks real enough to carry Chicago Bears into another winning season. But, it can’t all sit on that side of the ball, and the defense has to do its part. That’s where Thieneman comes in. It doesn’t need to be perfect, but it does need to be better than last season, and that’s why Thieneman may be the difference-maker for the Bears next round.

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This story was originally published May 6, 2026 at 10:22 AM.