Former Dennis Allen Saints who could fit his new Bears defense

Several players who had roles in the Saints defense of new Bears defensive coordinator Dennis Allen could be available should his new team need to plug lineup holes in free agency.
Defensive end Chase Young gives pursuit to Drew Lock for the Saints last season.
Defensive end Chase Young gives pursuit to Drew Lock for the Saints last season. / Kevin R. Wexler-NorthJersey.com / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
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Dennis Allen's New Orleans Saints defenses dominated opponents at times to such an extent that even the best offenses in the NFC South found scoring two touchdowns in games difficult.

It's all about personnel, though, and sometimes it didn't work this way. He was fired as head coach during 2024 and his defensive players finished out the schedule under defensive coordinator Joe Woods in the Allen scheme. Now he's headed to Chicago to be defensive coordinator in a scheme that is a combination of pressure and coverage, a sort of up-tempo Matt Eberflus defense.

"I've never coached with Dennis. I've never met him," Ben Johnson said at Halas Hall earlier in the week. "But, I would tell you we faced that defense a year ago when he was in New Orleans and gained a lot of respect for it.

"I think everywhere he has been along the way, they have been a top third-down team, a top red zone team. So there are a lot of pillars about what he does schematically that would be appealing to me. He has worked with Aaron Glenn. he has worked with Dan Campbell. Both speak very highly of him."

Allen's Saints defenses were top 10 in scoring four straight years before they were 19th in 2024. They were top seven or better three straight years from 2020-22 in yards allowed.

Ultimately in the NFL, it's about the personnel. Allen's workload will be lightened by the fact he's used to playing a 4-3 alignment like the Bears use, and has had many similar concepts along the front. This can also help in another way.

Saints who can help

There will be very little need for the Bears to add defensive players who might better fit his scheme, although they might need a few improvements in personnel anyway.

There could be a few Saints who want to come as free agents to Chicago in his scheme and one in particular would be of interest to Bears defensive end Montez Sweat.

Sweat's former teammate in Washington, Chase Young, is right at the top of the unrestricted free agent market again this year after he signed in New Orleans for $8.6 million average.

Whether the Bears would be willing to part with cap cash for a defensive end isn't certain. Ryan Poles has been reluctant to a large degree since they signed Montez Sweat to a $98 million contract but they definitely need edge rush help on the other side.

Young had the same amount of sacks for the Saints in 2024 as Sweat did for the Bears—5 1/2. His career high is 7 1/2 in 2020 and 2023 with Washington. He fought through knee and Achilles injuries earlier in his career.

There are two other edge players who didn't have bg impacts, Payton Turner and Tanoh Kpassagnon have never started a game and both are free agents. Turner has five career sacks.

However, there are two other Saints players on defense who are free agents at need positions for the Bears. Those players are safeties Tyrann Mathieu, "the honeybadger," and also former Lions safety Will Harris.

Harris, 29, started 13 games and made 74 tackles in 2024. Mathieu is now 32 years old and made $6.9 million in 2024. The Bears might need depth at safety with Kevin Byard 32 years old next season and Jaquan Brisker coming off three concussions in three seasons. 

Someone like safety Ugo Amadi might be of ever more interest to the Bears because they'd be looking at the position more for depth. They have Elijah Hicks and for one more season have Jonathan Owens under contract, but they went through safeties at a rapid pace last season due to injuries. Amadi started five games, played in 11 and broke up seven passes with two sacks.

Other Saints free agents on defense who know Allen's schemes are linebacker Willie Gay, cornerback Paulson Adebo and cornerback Shemar Jean-Charles. Adebo started seven games but suffered a broken femur in 2024.  Jean-Charles is a reserve cornerback who intercepted a pass and had two pass break-ups.

Former Saints ties

Not all the former Dennis Allen players who are going to be free agents are with Saints free agents.

Detroit defensive end Marcus Davenport, a former Saints player, is a free agent after he had a season-ending triceps injury in his only year as a Lions acquisition. He played in only two games for the Lions and the previous year had played only four games for Minnesota after leaving Allen and the Saints in free agency.

Davenport has shown he can be an effective pass rusher but can't stay on the field. He never played more than 15 games in a season in his career and had played 63 of a possible 82 games in New Orleans before leaving after the 2022 season. He had nine sacks in 2021 and six in 2019 for the Saints.

Cap Cuts

New Orleans has been a team notorious for a bad salary cap situation and currently is $57 million over the cap according to Overthecap.com.

There will likely be current Saints players who played for Allen and will come on the market as cap cuts, and know his defense well enough to help. If they part ways with Cameron Jordan, the 36-year-old defensive end still might have something left. He had a cap hit of $20 million last year.

Saints defensive end Carl Granderson had a $11 million cap hit this year and he has 28 1/2 sacks over six seasons. He could be another player who fits in as a cap cut victim. It's tough not to see cap cuts for the Saints when they're so far over the cap.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.