NY Giants 2026 NFL Draft scouting report: Dillon Thieneman, S, Oregon

Dillon Thieneman is a smart, versatile, and explosively athletic safety prospect.

Thieneman enters the NFL as one of the most athletic defensive backs in the league, possessing truly elite athleticism for his position. Not only does he have blazing speed for the position, he also has elite explosive traits as well as great quickness and agility. He possesses adequate size at 6-foot, 201 pounds, with long (31 ⅜ inch) arms for his height.

He has enough size to execute as a box safety, while also using his athleticism to run past blockers he can’t take on and beat physically. Thieneman typically diagnoses the play quickly and well, taking accurate first steps toward the play, as well as processing quickly during the play. He does a very good job of tracking the ball in the backfield and is able to easily adjust his angle to account for cutbacks or unexpected changes in the flow of the play.

Thieneman typically takes very efficient angles to the ball, trusting his speed to enable angles that would be dangerously over-aggressive for a less athletic defender. He is able to beat blockers and runners to their landmarks and is also very useful as a spy for athletic quarterbacks.

Thieneman is also a very capable coverage safety. His athleticism gives him the range to be a true centerfielding safety with true sideline-to-sideline ability. While he doesn’t have much ball production, Thieneman’s long arms, speed, and explosive closing burst allow him to slam receiving windows shut and knock the ball away at the last moment. He is also useful as a slot defender and is also easily able to execute coverage rotations to help disguise the defense’s intentions.

Overall, Thieneman is a disciplined defender who understands the structure of the defense and consistently works to maintain that structure without succumbing to offensive misdirection or schemed traffic. He is also able to direct traffic in the back end of the defense and is an active communicator.

Weaknesses

Worst traits

• Size

The only true limitation in Thieneman’s game is that he doesn’t have elite size to go with his elite athleticism. Thieneman is about average sized for a modern free safety, but small for a box safety.

That occasionally shows up in his tape at Oregon where he was primarily asked to play close to the line of scrimmage. Thieneman was usually asked to play in the tackle box or as a slot defender, which frequently brought him into conflict with tight ends and the bigger running backs favored by spread offenses.

Thieneman is able to defeat tight end blocks when he has momentum, but doesn’t quite have the mass and strength to stack and shed like even a smaller WILL linebacker is capable of doing. Likewise, he is neither big enough or strong enough to stonewall power backs when meeting them heads-up in the hole. He needs the kinetic energy of arriving at full speed and uncoiling with leverage to make up for his average mass.

Game Tape

(Thieneman is the Oregon safety wearing number 31 and a sleeve on his left arm.)

Projection

Dillon Thieneman projects as a starting safety with scheme and alignment versatility at the NFL level.

Between his time at Purdue and Oregon, Thieneman has shown the ability to be an excellent free and box safety. He should be able to execute just about any safety role in a modern NFL offense, except perhaps playing as a safety-linebacker hybrid.

He has truly rare athleticism to go with a starting caliber skill set. Thieneman should be a good player in the NFL very early in his career, while also having untapped upside thanks to his prodigious athleticism. He has the potential to grow into a perennial Pro Bowl player and a leader for his defense.

Thieneman will be a coveted player among teams thanks to his versatility to impact the run game as well as the pass game. He has all the more value as teams grapple with defending modern run and play-action concepts within the Spread Coast offenses that have taken the NFL by storm. He shouldn’t have to wait long to hear his name called in the first round.

Does he fit the Giants? Yes

Final Word: A high first round pick.