Dillon Thieneman shattered team rookie protocols by leading Chicago in tackles during his Week 1 debut. Now, the ball-hawking safety must anchor a depleted secondary against Minnesota.
The Chicago Bears have been cautious when it comes to playing rookies early in the year under head coach Ben Johnson.
He explained why that was in a recent press conference, citing the desire not to interfere with locker-room chemistry. Johnson doesn't want to introduce a rookie to the fold too early if it's going to affect the team's chemistry.
Johnson must have felt confident in rookie safety Dillon Thieneman to start him in Week 1 with that logic. Thieneman started against the Carolina Panthers and led the team with 10 total tackles.
It felt like Thieneman was everywhere at once with how active he was as a tackler.
Thieneman will have a lot of extra responsibility with Coby Bryant out of the lineup for the next few months. He suffered a knee injury in training camp and will be out for at least 4-6 months.
Bryant was brought in to replace one of the free-agent losses, Kevin Byard or Jaquan Brisker. It's now going to be a while before we see him make his regular-season Bears debut.
Regardless of the circumstances, Thieneman impressed this Bears coaching staff. This includes defensive coordinator Dennis Allen.
Allen spoke at a recent press conference about how solid Thieneman has looked so far. He's liked what he's seen from Thieneman, but he wants him to stay focused on learning the playbook.
"Yeah, I think, uh, you know, Dylan played well last week," Allen said. "And he's got to make sure that he's, you know, staying in his playbook, and his preparation has to be elite this week. Because we got another opponent this week that's um you know, another good team."
The Bears do have a tough team to beat in Week 2.
They take on the Minnesota Vikings at Soldier Field. Starting quarterback Kyler Murray will be out with a concussion, but the Bears should still be taken seriously.
Murray was hurt on one of his first throws of the game. He was hit by a pair of Green Bay Packers defenders and stayed down on the turf for quite some time afterward.
Carson Wentz came in for the team's season opener after he exited and threw three passing touchdowns. It's clear that Wentz knows how to operate the offense.
The Bears know good and well how games with the Vikings can go. In both meetings last year, either game was decided by three points or fewer.
The Vikings played the Bears in Week 1 last year. The Bears tried to put together a fourth-quarter push but lost 27-24.
The Bears got revenge at U.S. Bank Stadium later in the season.
Chicago was up 16-3 entering the fourth quarter, and Minnesota answered with two touchdowns in the final 15 minutes.
The Bears got the ball back and Devin Duvernay set the offense up in great field position. The Bears just had to run the ball and got Cairo Santos in position to hit the game-winner.
Sunday's game will be no different. The Bears should expect nothing less from their NFC North rival.
Kickoff is set for noon CT on Fox.
