Bears Film Review: What Stands out From Dillon Thieneman's Game vs. Bengals
From elite closing speed to physical run support, Bears' first-round draft pick Dillon Thieneman displayed all those traits in the preseason game against the Bengals. Here are some top plays from the Bears' safety.
Video Transcript
What's going on everybody?
Nicholas Moriano here from Roundtable Sports.
I just got done watching the all 22 of Dylan Thieneman's performance against the Cincinnati Bengals in the week two preseason game.
Thieneman played only in 13 defensive snaps, totaled two tackles in that game.
But as I'm continuing to watch Thieneman as he kind of grows in Dennis Allen's system, you could see that he's becoming more confident.
That was actually something that he talked about after the game when reporters, you know, talked to him about how he's feeling.
He said, "I think I'm in a very good spot where we are right now with the playbook.
I feel very confident."
You can start to see that confidence in his game.
There are a couple snaps that I put within the article.
Please definitely go and check them out.
But plays where it's not only the game speed, the s- the natural speed that he has, that four-three, speed, but it's now the, the recognition that is starting to match that.
One play where he shows really good coverage on one of the Bengals tight ends running an out route, where the quarterback is actually looking to his right side towards Jaylen Johnson and the receiver, but also Thieneman and that tight end.
Tight end's completely covered because Thieneman, one, has the closing speed, but the play recognition to cover that up.
So that's one play.
There's also another one where you see the pursuit from the Bears first round draft pick, where he is on the top of the hash.
He actually puts his back right foot into the front end zone line, but is still able to take the right angle, use that closing speed to get on a tackle all the way outside of the numbers to the right side, defense's left.
So you see that as well, but that comes with play speed.
He recognized the screen pass was right there before the ball carrier even got close to catching the ball.
And then you have run support, where you're gonna see Thieneman in the box.
He's gonna also play single high.
He's gonna two split safety.
You're gonna see him all over the place because he's a versatile defender.
But in this case, and, and just like some of the other plays, he was in the box and lowers his shoulder into the Bengals wide receiver who's trying to block him, turns him inside, and even uses the Bengals offensive players who close down one of the running lanes.
So you're starting to see Thieneman not only have that natural speed, but apply it to Dennis Allen's system, and that's because he's getting more reps. And it hasn't been easy for Thieneman.
He's had to, one, cover Colson Loveland on a daily basis.
It's not an easy task for any safety, let alone a rookie.
He's also had to learn Dennis Allen's system, and then on top of that, he's been mixing in with a bunch of different safeties opposite of him.
Kobe Bryant, Cam Lewis, Xavier Woods, to name a few.
So it's encouraging to see, even in the 13 snaps that he had in week two, 13 snaps that he had in week one against the Browns, he's starting to show that he can take that na- natural God-given speed and translate it to the football field.
