Poles added that Thieneman’s soccer character is “off the charts,” a conclusion the Bears reached after interviewing these he interacted with from Westfield High School in Indiana to the University of Oregon.
“The feedback we got was incredible,” stated Poles, who in contrast Thieneman to 2025 first-round choose Colston Loveland. “He’s a very similar type person/player combination to what Colston was. The work ethic, that passion for ball was off the charts. Really happy with the type of person we’re bringing in.”
Coach Ben Johnson, who final month stated that the protection was in search of “trained killers,” evidently feels the identical means about Thieneman being drafted by the Bears.
“He was fired up,” Poles stated. “We’ve spent time together. He would come in and watch tape with our group. This is one of the guys that we had on when he was in. I can now feel Ben. He doesn’t say anything. I can feel his body language start to get excited by somebody. You can feel it. It’s that style of play he has that’s contagious. It’s the type of player that we want on our football team.”
The Bears envision Thieneman teaming with free agent acquisition Coby Bryant to kind one of many NFL’s quickest and most versatile security tandems.
“You match up better,” Poles stated. “Every time we do an advance on our opponent, we’re looking for guys that we can find mismatches on and expose. When you have speed and you have a lot of guys that can cover in different spots, your ability to hang in there and cover longer while you’re bringing pressure enhances integrity.”
“When you look at the way you want your defense to play, you want to be able to play with two guys that can both play high and low, both fill the run on both sides,” Ackley stated. “There’s really not a weakness because they can both do everything. It allows DA (defensive coordinator Dennis Allen) to be much more multiple. It allows us to put multiple players in the best position because of what those guys can both do.”
