By Joseph Phillips, Sports Editor
After hiring Ben Johnson as the 19th head coach in franchise history, the Chicago Bears named Dennis Allen as the team’s next defensive coordinator.
During the interview, Allen said he was very excited to takeover the defensive responsibilities of the organization.
“I’m excited about being here,” said Allen. “looking forward to the opportunity. I think this is an exciting time for the whole organization. I’m excited to be a part of it.”
Allen also spoke on how he and Head Coach Ben Johnson ‘got connected’:
“I think at some point, as we got later in the season, he reached out to me just to see if I would be interested. I told him that I would be interested. I think it’s probably a product of just the same connections. (Lions Head Coach) Dan (Campbell), (Jets Head Coach) Aaron (Glenn), all of us were at (Texas) A&M together at some point in time or had that connection. We were all on the staff there in New Orleans together. I was with (Patriots Defensive Coordinator) Terrell Williams. He was with me in Oakland. I just feel like I had connections to Ben, although I didn’t really know him. I just think him leaning on those guys in reference to me and me leaning on those guys in reference to him, I think we both felt like it was a really good fit.”
Allen’s defensive goals for the season:
“I think we want to be an attacking aggressive style of defense. 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, and I think the brand of football that you come to expect at the Chicago Bears.”
On if he studied the Bears defense:
“The answer to the question is, yes, I took a look a little bit at the pieces on defense. I felt like there were some pieces in place. In particular, I think there’s some things that we have in the secondary that I like. There are some pieces at linebacker that I’m encouraged by. I think there’s a couple of spots up front that I feel like we’ve got some players. I think the foundation is there defensively. When Ben asked me if I would be interested, there was a couple of places that I felt like had the pieces in place to potentially be a really good football team. Chicago was obviously one of them. I was excited when it came about that this was the job that he really wanted. This was the job that he was able to get, and I was excited when he wanted me to come along with him.”
On what he did on the last part of the football season:
“Home base was still in New Orleans, but I spent a lot of time with my family. We took a couple of vacations. I got away from football a little bit. I’m not going to forget football in a couple of months, it’s going to be there when I get back. I just really wanted to take the time to do some things that you don’t really get an opportunity to do a lot in our profession. Hanging out with family on Thanksgiving and Christmas and taking a couple of vacations, I did that. Once the first of the year rolled around, I started getting my juices flowing a little bit and getting ready to get going back to work.”
