Bears pick Dennis Allen as defensive coordinator, Declan Doyle as offensive coordinator
Ben Johnson is building his coaching staff in a way Matt Eberflus never did — by hiring a coordinator with NFL head coaching experience.
Former Raiders and Saints head coach Dennis Allen will be the Bears’ defensive coordinator, a source confirmed Sunday night, while Declan Doyle will serve as offensive coordinator. Special teams coordinator Richard Hightower will return in the same role.
Doyle, 28, was the Broncos’ tight end coach for the last two years. Johnson, the former Lions offensive coordinator, will call plays.
Allen, 52, was the Raiders’ head coach from 2012-14 and the Saints head coach from 2022 until midway through last season. He’s been either a head coach or coordinator in every season since 2011.
Allen was Sean Payton’s defensive coordinator in New Orleans from 2015-21 before replacing him. As coordinator, improved the Saints’ defense from last in points allowed in 2015 — when he took over midseason — to fourth in 2021. He runs a base 4-3 scheme, the way Eberflus did.
He struggled as a head coach, going 8-28 with the Raiders and 18-25 with the Saints.
Allen has been linked to Johnson since his hiring. The two had never met, Johnson said, but Allen worked with Lions head coach Dan Campbell in New Orleans.
“Everywhere he has been, they have been a top third-down team, a top red-zone team,” Johnson said Wednesday. “There are a lot of pillars about what he does schematically that would be appealing to me.”
Doyle attended Iowa, where his father Chris was the strength coach. He connects to Johnson through Campbell, too; he was a low-level Saints assistant from 2019-22.
General manager Ryan Poles stressed the value of experience for a first-time head coach earlier this month.
“Do you have an advisor that's a [former] head coach that's at your right side to pick up some of your blind spots to say, 'Hey you might want to take care of this — this can turn into something later?’ he said. “Or, ‘I think you might be missing something here?’"
The special teams coordinator for all three of Eberflus’ seasons, Hightower produced three NFC Special Teams Players of the Week this season.
The Bears already had agreed to hire secondary coach Al Harris, the former Packer star; receivers coach Antwaan Randle El, a Thornton High School legend; and quarterbacks coach J.T. Barrett, the former Ohio State passer. Randle El and Barrett are following Johnson from the Lions.