​Yes, I do include coaches on my list from time to time, and given that the Chicago Bears didn’t make major moves on the defensive line this offseason, there is a lot riding on Dennis Allen to get his scheme humming. The Bears are essentially bringing back the same group of defensive ends, and at defensive tackle they swapped Andrew Billings for Neville Gallimore. They trimmed the bottom of the depth chart on the d-line, but they didn’t add anything of major significance. The Bears feel they have the right guys in place, so the burden falls on Allen to take the same group up front and figure out how to improve on their 35 sacks (tied for 7th fewest), 84 QB hits (tied for 8th fewest), and 66 tackles for loss (tied for 4th fewest). It also raises the question: if they feel they have the right players, then what happened last year?
At their post-draft press conference on April 25, head coach Ben Johnson was asked how the pass rush would improve with the same roster as the previous year. “Well, we’re certainly going to coach better than what we did a year ago,” he replied. Coaching improvement was a recurring theme he touched on during that press conference, so when Allen faced the media in May, he was asked about Ben’s message that the staff needed to be better. “There’s nothing that Ben said in here [the Halas Hall Press Conference Room] that he and I haven’t talked about,” Allen answered. “We’ve had all these discussions, and I think when you look at things, the first thing you have to look at is, okay, what could I have done better? And then, what could we, as a staff, have done better? And we had a lot of discussions this offseason about a lot of different things. And one of the things that we identified was, you know, me.”
In the Bears’ recent history, a defensive play caller often avoided taking accountability, so Allen’s candor was welcome. “We focused so much on installing all the scheme last year because it was brand new, and we do have a high volume of things that we carry in the defense. We focused so much on that, we lost sight of some of the fundamentals and techniques that it takes to function at the level these things demand. I don’t think we were as fundamentally sound defensively as we need to be.” Allen noted that his front seven are expected to move around a bit, so if they are off on their fundamentals and miss their marks, the timing of the stunts can suffer. “So, how do we have to coach it better? Well, let’s minimize how much we’re focused on the scheme, okay, and let’s focus on not what we’re going to do, but how we’re going to do it. I think that’s how we’re going to improve.”
Allen’s defense, in particular, lost every defender who had multiple interceptions in 2025, so they will need some new takeaway artists to step up. The Bears have reloaded on the back end of the defense, and if their injured players can bounce back, that group could help offset some of the challenges up front. The overarching question remains: with the same personnel, can the Bears’ coaching staff elevate fundamentals and technique to translate those elements into better production on game day? If Allen’s plan centers on sharpening fundamentals, refining technique, and dialing back some of the overemphasis on scheme in favor of precise execution, there could be a path to meaningful improvement. The next steps will reveal whether the adjustments translate into more pressure up front, more consistent coverages, and more takeaways from the secondary.