The Chicago Bears‘ defense was swamped by an avalanche of injuries last season. More than half of their starters missed multiple games. Some, like cornerback Jaylon Johnson, cornerback Kyler Gordon, defensive end Dayo Odeyingbo, edge rusher Austin Booker, and defensive end Shemar Turner, missed half of the season or more. The defense never played a single game together with its original 11 projected starters. It was a minor miracle they still managed to lead the league in takeaways. Defensive coordinator Dennis Allen deserves credit for that.
However, some are beginning to think something is wrong. Barely a week into training camp, and defenders are already dropping like flies. Thursday’s practice alone saw four defensive players leave the field with injuries and not return. Montez Sweat was among them. There is no way simple bad luck explains this. It’s starting to feel like a trend. Longtime Chicago radio personality Dan Bernstein has a theory. He believes it has something to do with Allen’s coaching style and presented his case on 312 Sports.
Dennis Allen has a track record of high injury rates.
“We were mentioning that we’ve got a researcher who has been doing some work for 312 Sports who has raised the question about Dennis Allen and injuries. Is there a correlation between Dennis Allen running your defense and or your team, even if we hold it to soft tissue injuries in the secondary? Is there a correlation between Dennis Allen’s presence and an increased frequency of those? I think the answer to that is yes…
…And for what it’s worth, the same thing happened to Dennis Allen in New Orleans. And this is a quote from Mickey Loomis, the general manager, when they fired Dennis Allen. Loomis said, ‘Dennis Allen, I think, is a fantastic football coach, but it just gets right back to what stares at you right in the face that we’ve had an abnormal amount of injuries, and we haven’t been able to overcome that.’ And so that puts pressure and stress on the organization and ultimately it was caused for a change.”
Where does the data stand on this Allen theory?
Tracking injuries is always tricky. One must remember that many setbacks are things you can’t control, such as knee, elbow, neck, and ankle ligament injuries. Soft-tissue injuries (hamstrings, groins, quads, and calves) are where the argument can at least be made that coaching may play a role. I did some research. In his last five seasons as a defensive coordinator, from 2018 to 2021 in New Orleans and last year in Chicago, Allen has seen a steady uptick in the total number of games missed by defensive players due to injuries.
| Season | Team / Role | Games Missed / Impact Metric | Approximate Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Saints (DC) | 158 games missed | 23rd most |
| 2019 | Saints (DC) | 195 games missed | 16th most |
| 2020 | Saints (DC) | 174 games missed | 15th most |
| 2021 | Saints (DC) | 250 games missed | 9th most |
| 2025 | Bears (DC) | 336 games missed | 1st most |
It’s not like Dennis Allen is ignorant of the problem. During his last season with the Saints in 2024, he acknowledged the upward trend in soft-tissue injuries the team was suffering.
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“Looking at hydration levels, a little more pre-practice stretch, activation period. Those are a couple things that we’re going to look at.”
That season, New Orleans saw 14 different players miss at least one game with a soft tissue problem. Is it a coincidence that the very next year in Chicago, the Bears suddenly start experiencing the same misfortune? Maybe there is something about Allen’s approach, which is known to be rigorous, that players aren’t accustomed to.
The Bears should monitor this issue carefully.
If they go through another season like last year with guys dropping left and right, it might be time for head coach Ben Johnson to make a decision. As capable a schemer as Dennis Allen can be, it matters little if your best players can’t stay on the field with any consistency. This means the Bears either need to find a training staff that can properly prepare guys for the coach’s approach, or they need to find a new coordinator who has a more modern way of thinking on how to prepare players.
Again, it must be reiterated that all of the blame can’t fall on Allen. Last season, Johnson and Gordon were the ones responsible for their injury problems. Both occurred during offseason training. Gordon had health concerns even before Allen arrived. This is more about whether the coach makes a shaky situation worse. The data, imperfect as it is, does show a trend in the wrong direction. If the Bears haven’t taken it seriously before, they must start now.
