The Chicago Bears are starting to draft like a team that is playing with house money. A year after drafting Colston Loveland and Luther Burden as the BPA flex that many have been wishing for, Ryan Poles once again utilizes his patience to select the best player on the board in Dillon Thieneman.

Beyond that, Thieneman also fills the Bears’ biggest remaining roster hole to make a potentially elite Safety pairing with Coby Bryant.

While the Bears had a good pairing in Kevin Byard and Jaquan Brisker last season, it was obvious that both would too often get beaten by faster receivers. Byard’s instincts and positioning frequently covered up these mistakes, but it’s clear that he has lost a step.

Enter Thieneman – the 22-year-old phenom from Oregon and Purdue who has 4.35 speed, stout tackling, and incredible instincts. Nobody thought he would make it all the way to the Bears at #25, and Poles did what other GMs wouldn’t — take an elite safety prospect and scoff at the idea of “positional value”.

This makes two years running where Poles used a top pick on a position viewed by the league as lesser — and look what Colston Loveland did. After a phenomenal back half of his rookie season, many are already calling comparisons to George Kittle and Greg Olsen… not bad for a lower value position. The day after the shocking Loveland selection, Poles doubled down on a well-stocked position and took Luther Burden, cementing his process as being one guided by a Best Player Available ethic.

Thieneman might not have the same positional value as Keldric Faulk or Caleb Lomu, but it is hard to knock his college production, which far exceeds either of the other options available at 25.

Look across the other teams in the NFC North, and you will see one team who took a good, but perhaps slightly overdrafted RT signaling the move of an All-Pro RT to the left side. Another team selected a high-risk, high-reward talent at DT that may not even be ready for week 1. Meanwhile, the Packers boast that Micah Parsons was their 1st Round pick — which essentially means they did not add any value to their roster yesterday.

So does this mean that the Bears, winners of the North in 2025, are opening up a gap between them and the rest of the division? Let’s talk about that.

I think this pick, along with a good free agency, gives the Bears the clearest path to the NFC North crown of any team.

The Lions had a surprising last-place finish in 2025, a trend I don’t expect to continue. But with continued shuffling on the OL by losing Decker and Glasgow, and additions of Cade Mays and Blake Miller, it’s unclear if they will improve or take time to gel. Meanwhile, their DL still lacks potency outside of Hutchinson, something they could address in Day 2 of the draft.

The Vikings have not been a neutral party this offseason, firing their GM, signing Kyler Murray, and drafting Caleb Banks in Round 1. With the amount of turbulence and variance in Minnesota, it’s hard to imagine them as the favorites until they prove more.

The Packers are serious contenders for the North in 2026, but losing Rashan Gary, Elgton Jenkins, Romeo Doubs, Quay Walker, and Nate Hobbs is a lot of roster turnover for a team that has yet to prove it is elite. Fans will point to the signings of Skyy Moore, Benjamin St-Juste, and Javon Hargrave as reasons to be optimistic, but those still feel like they don’t balance out the overall losses.

Which brings us back to sweet home Chicago. The Bears have also had their fair share of losses this offseason, which the departures of Kevin Byard, Tremaine Edmunds, DJ Moore, Jaquan Brisker, and Drew Dalman. However, they have filled those holes quickly with the additions of Garrett Bradbury, Coby Bryant, Devin Bush, Kalif Raymond, and now Dillon Thieneman. Meanwhile, they still have three more picks in the top 90 to improve around the edges.

Call me a homer, but what the Bears continue to do this offseason makes them the clear favorites in the North, and last night just cemented that for me.