(670 The Score) After his firing as Saints head coach in early November, Dennis Allen found himself with a rare luxury for a football coach: free time.
Allen spent Thanksgiving and Christmas with his family instead of working a late night in the office. He took two vacations to get away from his home in New Orleans and clear his mind. Then on Jan. 1, he turned the page.
That’s when Allen started thinking more about his next opportunity and a return to the game. It was also around that time that then-Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson contacted Allen to inquire about his interest in serving as his defensive coordinator for whichever team he’d choose to lead as a head coach.
Allen surveyed the teams that could covet Johnson and explored the potential of each defense. As he went through that process, the chance to lead the Bears’ defense jumped out.
“The foundation is there defensively,” Allen said Thursday in a Zoom session.
On Tuesday, the 52-year-old Allen was officially hired by the Bears as their new defensive coordinator. It was a crucial hire for Johnson, an offensive-minded first-time head coach who will call plays on that side of the ball. Allen will lead the defense while serving as a key figure alongside Johnson.
As a head coach for six years – three with the Raiders (2012-’14) and three more with the Saints (2022-’24) – Allen understands his role's importance to Johnson.
“I’d say my job is to use all the experience that I have to help him be as successful as he can be,” Allen said. “I don’t look at it as my job is to go in there and tell him what I think he needs to do. My job is to be a sounding board for him. If he’s got questions, if he’s got things that he wants to run by me, I’ll be glad to give him my opinion. But in my experience with him, I’m excited about this opportunity for him. He’s fully prepared and fully capable of doing an outstanding job, and whatever he needs me to do, I’ll be here to try to help him in any way I can.
“Sometimes, we can learn through other people’s trials and tribulations instead of having to go through them ourself. I think that’s a better way to learn. So, I think anything that I can do to help him just from my own personal experience and what I went through as a first-time head coach, a second-time head coach – the challenges are there on a daily basis as a head coach.
“Every day you wake up, you’re coming into the office and you know that there’s going to be things that you’re going to have to deal with and then it’s just really about how do you react to those things.”
Allen was 26-53 as an NFL head coach. It’s rare to get a third opportunity as a head coach in the NFL, but many coaches in Allen’s situation have thrived in returning to a coordinator role.
Allen was a safety at Texas A&M from 1992-’95, playing alongside Aggies tight end Dan Campbell and safety Aaron Glenn. He became a graduate assistant as his alma mater following his playing career. Allen, Campbell and Glenn have maintained a connection in their respective coaching careers, which allowed Johnson to gain an understanding of Allen as a coach through his now-former Lions colleagues in Campbell and Glenn. Campbell remains Detroit's head coach, while Glenn was the Lions' defensive coordinator before recently accepting the Jets' head coaching job.
Johnson and Allen have never worked together, and they had never met prior to their recent interview.
“(But) we faced that defense a year ago when he was in New Orleans and gained a lot of respect for it,” Johnson said. “I think everywhere he has been along the way, they have been a top third-down team, a top red-zone team. So, there are a lot of pillars about what he does schematically that would be appealing to me.”
In leading the Bears, Allen will carry on the team’s 4-3 base identity. That means a significant overhaul in personnel won't be required, but the Bears' defensive style is expected to change under Allen’s watch. The Bears ranked 19th in blitz percentage in 2024 but still ranked seventh in the NFL in generating pressure, according to Pro Football Reference. They ranked 16th with 40 sacks and 13th in scoring defense.
Allen isn’t one to just sit back and wait.
"We want to be an attacking, aggressive style of defense,” Allen said. “We want to take the fight to the offense and not let the offense dictate the tempo to us. We're going to be aggressive, we're going to challenge everything, we're going to play the game the right way, we're going to play a tough, physical brand of football, I think the brand of football you come to expect at the Chicago Bears."
Chris Emma covers the Bears, Chicago’s sports scene and more for 670TheScore.com. Follow him on X @CEmma670.