ALLEN PARK — The Detroit Lions and coach Dan Campbell face one of the coaches that knows the most about them outside of the organization when Ben Johnson’s Chicago Bears come to town on Sunday.
But the familiarity with the Bears coaching staff doesn’t end with Johnson as their defensive coordinator has known Campbell even longer.
Dennis Allen, former head coach of the New Orleans Saints, joined Johnson’s first-year staff running the defense and is another of Campbell’s close friends in the coaching world.
While there’s plenty of familiarity with his aggressive style of defense, Campbell knows as well as anyone who tough it can be to crack a unit Allen runs.
“He’s an excellent communicator, knows how to teach, energetic, passionate. All of those things are always going to rub off on your players,” Campbell said Wednesday. “I got a lot of respect for (Allen). I got a lot of respect for all those coaches, a hell of a staff over there, it really is.”
The pair go all the way back to their college days at Texas A&M where Allen was a safety from 1992-1995 and Campbell a tight end from 1995-1998. However, Allen stuck around the program as a graduate assistant until 1999.
The two reunited in New Orleans in 2009 with Campbell in his last season as a player and Allen serving as secondary coach.
As the two began rising the coaching ranks, their paths once again crossed in New Orleans with Allen running the defense from 2015-2021 — before becoming head coach in 2022 — and Campbell as assistant head coach and in charge of tight ends from 2016-2020 before he took the Lions’ coaching job.
It was likely Allen’s connections with Campbell and former Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn — who also went to Texas A&M and coached on the Sean Payton Saints staff — that played a part in him heading to Chicago.
“He’s very detailed. His guys always play hard and the essence of defense, man, they run, they hit, they challenge. They make it hard on you. Nothing comes easy,” Campbell said. “He covers himself a lot, man. Like he’s kind of been through it all. He knows where people are trying to expose that defense and so he’s got answers for everything.
“When you accompany that with the way they play, that’s why he always has really good defenses.”
The Bears struggled down the stretch on defense in their first game of the season after keeping the Minnesota Vikings out of the end zone for three quarters. Even in a loss, it still seemed like a marked improvement from that side of the ball for Chicago through just one week.
Campbell and Allen have gone head-to-head as head coaches just once, with the Lions taking a 33-28 victory over Allen’s Saints in 2023 at Caesars Superdome.
While Allen won’t be helming the Bears in this meeting of the longtime friends, Campbell is watching out for what his unit has developed in the months since joining the staff.
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