Bears

The Bears drafted S Dillon Thieneman with their first-round pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. Chicago DC Dennis Allen said one similar quality he’s noticed in safeties throughout his 24 years coaching in the NFL is intelligence. 

“And it’s not just book smarts,” Allen said, via Dan Wiederer of The Athletic. “It’s being able to think and process and make really good decisions.”

Allen mentioned that Thieneman showed an innate ability to be around the ball, which shows the rookie’s intelligence and instincts. 

“Obviously you can see his athleticism on the tape,” Allen said. “But the biggest thing was he found his way around the ball a lot. To be able to do that, there has to be some intelligence about him and there has to be some instincts about him. And I think when you’re looking at college safeties or safeties in general, it’s a production position. That production can come in a lot of different ways, whether it be tackles or interceptions or PBUs or any of those things. But safety is a position where you find your way around the ball. The best ones do. I thought that showed up with him.”

Buccaneers

Miami EDGE Rueben Bain Jr. fell to the Buccaneers at No. 15 in the 2026 NFL Draft. When appearing on the Up And Adams Shows, Tampa Bay GM Jason Licht said they discussed moving down in the first round if Bain wasn’t available. 

“We talked about moving back. We had a group of players that we still really liked, that we could move back and maybe pick up some extra picks and still get one of the three or four players that we really liked,” Licht said. 

Vikings

The Vikings have curated a list of candidates for their GM role after Rob Brzezinski filled in during this offseason. Minnesota president Mark Wilf outlined what they are looking for in their next general manager, specifically mentioning fit inside the organization as a top priority.

“We certainly want someone who is a great leader, someone who can lead,” Wilf said, via ESPN’s Kevin Seifert. “We feel we have a great scouting staff. Great coaching staff. Of course, never resting on any laurels [and] we want to continue to strive to be the best. We want to be competitive every single year and have long-term success.

“So someone’s got to fit within that. It’s got to fit within what we have in our building right now as well. So it’s a host of factors. Hopefully we’ll know it when we see it, but we’re certainly going to, as part of the laying out of the process, try to develop some qualities we can build around.”

Wilf said whoever they hire will report to ownership and work collaboratively with HC Kevin O’Connell and the football operations team.

“I think we like the way we’ve done it as far as the structure, and the GM will report to ownership. It has to be strongly collaborative with the coach and with our football operations team. So I think we’re going to stick to the way we’ve done it. It’s just a matter of getting the right person who’s a leader of the organization who can communicate and deliver.”