What Grady Jarrett has learned working with Bears DC Dennis Allen

USA Today

5 days ago

With all the moves that the Chicago Bears made to improve their roster this offseason, they also had a major overhaul of their coaching staff, including the hiring of defensive coordinator Dennis Allen.
Formerly a defensive coordinator and head coach for the New Orleans Saints since 2015, Allen has a long and respected resume across the NFL and his new defensive tackle Grady Jarrett has taken notice of it.
A longtime member of the Atlanta Falcons, Jarrett has had plenty of matchups against Allen's Saints as NFC South rivals. But, now, the two will work together as key members of the Bears defense. Getting early work in with his defensive coordinator, Jarrett spoke about his early takeaways from Allen and the defense that he's building in Chicago.
"I've learned a lot about him," Jarrett said Tuesday. "I competed against him for so many years playing against him when I was in Atlanta, but I'm not surprised by anything. The grittiness, the attention to detail, the knowledge of knowing what everybody should be doing from front to back and how it all works together and communicating to us, as a defense, what his expectations are on a daily basis have all been something that I've been appreciating. It definitely is going to make us all better and he is definitely somebody who's as hungry as ever just to go out there and compete and play football and he has some players that's ready to go out there and hunt for him."
Jarrett appreciates how Allen is pushing the defense and raising expectations about how the unit will operate.
"He challenges us every day and he's not making it easy on us and not babying us as far as what he is expecting us to learn for the defense and what he wants to call," Jarrett said. "That raises the expectation for guys involved to know that he is not going to call things that make us comfortable. He wants to run defense a certain way and he is going to make sure his players are going to go out there and be able to do it."
One of the most standout quotes from Jarrett about Allen is the attention to detail that he is showing, a similar compliment that new head coach Ben Johnson has received early on, as well. The new coaching staff is clearly working extremely hard to put in all the details and emphasize their importance, a factor that was clearly missing in their 5-12 season last year.