In the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft, the Chicago Bears waited patiently as their turn with the No. 25 selection came up, as other teams were busy maneuvering around the board with trades.
Coming into the draft, the Bears were widely expected to address their defense with their first round pick, whether it was on the defensive line or in the secondary, primarily at safety, which is where they went selecting Dillon Thieneman.
Many mock drafts leading up to the draft had expected Thieneman to be long gone before the Bears' selection in the first round came up, and if they wanted to go get him, a trade would be required. That was not the case, and general manager Ryan Poles recently spoke about the anxious moments that were there watching the board fall, ultimately giving Chicago one of the top players on their board, while also fulfilling a big need on their roster.
2026 NFL Draft: Bears select Dillon Thieneman in first round (No. 25)2026 NFL Draft: Bears select Logan Jones2026 NFL Draft: Bears select Sam Roush2026 NFL Draft: Bears select Zavion Thomas2026 NFL Draft: Bears select CB Malik Muhammad2026 NFL Draft: Bears select Keyshaun Elliott2026 NFL Draft: Bears select Jordan van den Berg1 / 7Chicago Bears' 2026 rookie draft class2026 NFL Draft: Bears select Dillon Thieneman in first round (No. 25)1 / 7Chicago Bears' 2026 rookie draft class2026 NFL Draft: Bears select Dillon Thieneman in first round (No. 25)2 / 7Chicago Bears' 2026 rookie draft class2026 NFL Draft: Bears select Logan Jones3 / 7Chicago Bears' 2026 rookie draft class2026 NFL Draft: Bears select Sam Roush4 / 7Chicago Bears' 2026 rookie draft class2026 NFL Draft: Bears select Zavion Thomas5 / 7Chicago Bears' 2026 rookie draft class2026 NFL Draft: Bears select CB Malik Muhammad6 / 7Chicago Bears' 2026 rookie draft class2026 NFL Draft: Bears select Keyshaun Elliott7 / 7Chicago Bears' 2026 rookie draft class2026 NFL Draft: Bears select Jordan van den Berg"Yeah, there were," Poles said. "I think I've talked about our simulator usage, some mocks – hundreds of mocks – to kind of hone in and give us different challenges as we're picking to go through and simulate the draft. It was 50/50 with him oftentimes. So, we weren't sure if he was going to make it. I think there was a lot. I think it was 18 that seemed to be the spot that everyone said he was going to. We knew if we got past that, there was a good chance.
"Again, in our sequence we had two more guys that were close, so we knew that we were going to get a good football player. I drew a line on our top 100 of ones that we would be looking to trade back, trade up, and it fell where we had a couple of guys there in the sequence. We looked to potentially move back a little bit. There wasn't much interest right behind us where we felt comfortable in terms of the numbers, so we just moved forward, and we loved the player, so we were excited about it."
Coming into the draft, it certainly felt like there was a very slim chance that Thieneman would be available to Chicago at the No. 25 pick, but things played out in the front office's favor, and they got one of the best players in the draft class. Following Thursday night, several draft pundits have praised the Bears for their selection of Thieneman and what he will bring to the defense from the moment he steps on the field.
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This article originally appeared on Bears Wire: Bears GM Ryan Poles opens up on anxiety in first round of NFL draft