Bear Digest

The advantage Ben Johnson has with Bears that Matt Eberflus lacked

Dennis Allen caps off a stronger support system for the new Bears head coach than former head coach Matt Eberflus ever had with the team.

Gene Chamberlain

Dennis Allen shakes hands with former Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy after a Saints game. Allen's experience of six seasons as a head coach can be invaluable to new Bears coach Ben Johnson.
Dennis Allen shakes hands with former Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy after a Saints game. Allen's experience of six seasons as a head coach can be invaluable to new Bears coach Ben Johnson. / Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images
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Ben Johnson saw more value in hiring Dennis Allen as defensive coordinator than merely an experienced, successful director of operations on the opposite side of the football from his own expertise.

The "sounding board" theme kept coming up over the past week.

"There's no question that experience, whether it's coordinators or elsewhere within the coaching staff, will be important to me," Johnson said after his hiring.

When defensive coordinator Dennis Allen did his virtual press conference Thursday with reporters, he immediately pointed to this as a key responsibility of his.

"I'd say my job is to use all the experience that I have, to help him be as successful as he can be," Allen said. "I don't look at it as my job is to go in there and tell him what I think he needs to do. My job is to be a sounding board for him."

Six years as a head coach with two organizations and nine years as defensive coordinator besides that make him a valued source for someone who has never been a head coach and really only has three years experience calling plays.

"If he's got questions, things that he wants to run by me, I'll be glad to give him my opinion," Allen said.
"He's fully prepared and fully capable of doing an outstanding job, and whatever he needs me to do, I'll be here to try to help him in any way I can.”

Johnson had previously indicated the realization he was taking a step into something new but has always figured out how to handle different responsibilities throughout his career.

"The role or responsibilities are completely different, and I'm well aware of that, and I know that a lot of coordinators have failed in this role," Johnson said. "Here's what I’d tell you is every step of my journey, whether it's quality control, whether it was position coach, whether it was coordinator, I have found a way to change myself to be the best in that particular job."

This is fine, but it's always good to have someone to confide in or rely on who can point out their own history of mistakes to avoid. Allen is it for Johnson, who definitely won't get this from his 28-year-old offensive coordinator.

"I think at any level that you're at, having experienced people–I think sometimes we can learn through other people's trials and tribulations instead of having to go through them ourselves," Allen said. "I think that's a better way to learn.

"Anything that I can do to help him, just from my own personal experience and what I went through as a first-time head coach, a second-time head coach."

Johnson can also fall back on what he learned from a successful head coach. Dan Campbell has had playoff success and the experience of taking a team from the depths of a division to consecutive playoff berths and an NFC championship game. Johnson was right there beside him. He lived through the Matt Patricia regime and then got to see what Campbell did to spark change.

"Dan Campbell is truly authentic from the moment he steps into a building to when he leaves," Johnson said. "He's entirely him. And I know everyone talks about being yourself, but he certainly embodied that over the last four seasons I was with him.

"So, I will forever take that with me, along with his ability to empower the people around him."

The point of all this is the Bears have eliminated a major concern ownership and GM Ryan Poles might have had about their new head coach transitioning from coordinator. That's an inexperienced coach with a lack of support.

They just lived through this problem.

Who did Matt Eberflus have on his staff to rely on like Allen, someone who had been through head coaching situations before? Eberflus was taking classes in game situations from Harry Freid at the outset of his coaching tenure. Freid is the team's director of research and analysis.

No offense against Freid, but having someone on staff who actually was in charge of a team in those situations is a good deal better.

Eberflus couldn't even fall back on past successful experience working with a mentor head coach. His Colts boss was Frank Reich, who was fired from two head coaching jobs almost within one calendar year. As a position coach, his Dallas head coach was Jason Garrett and the Cowboys never achieved much under him.

Eberflus' offensive coordinator was Luke Getsy, who didn't even have NFL experience at his own job let alone head coaching experience. His defensive coordinator was Alan Williams, who resigned under pressure from the human resource department. The two hires he made in 2024 at those positions had no head coaching experience.

This lack of real experience and within his support system showed up when Eberflus stood there during the final plays of the Hail Mary game without taking the right action, or hung onto his timeout as time expired against Detroit.

Johnson was so aware of the importance of something like this that he said he reached out to Allen about possible interest while the season was still going on and he only knew he was going to have a chance at being a head coach but didn't know for certain where. Allen had already been fired.

This sounding board role is a critical one and the Bears can at least be confident Johnson has this and a much stronger background of success than Eberflus or some past Bears hires had. Now Dallas' Brian Schottenheimer can benefit in this way from Eberflus' own head coaching experience.

Johnson is already a step ahead in Chicago.

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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.