Chicago Bears defensive coordinator Dennis Allen and offensive coordinator Press Taylor met with reporters at Halas Hall in Lake Forest on Saturday for the second day of rookie minicamp.

Saturday marked the first time the Bears’ coordinators met with reporters since the team’s loss to the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC divisional round. It also marked the first time Taylor spoke with reporters since he replaced Declan Doyle as the offensive coordinator.

A lot has happened since that loss. Bears general manager Ryan Poles has reworked parts of the roster in hopes of boosting his playoff roster. Now the Bears will continue their offseason workouts before starting Organized Team Activities (OTA) at the end of May.

Here are three of the most interesting things Allen and Taylor said.

On the lack of changes to the defensive line

Bears head coach Ben Johnson raised some eyebrows after the draft when he said the defense line would do a better job pressuring opposing quarterbacks with better coaching. Allen agreed with that sentiment Saturday.

Chicago didn’t add a pass rusher in free agency or the draft and brought in four players to its defensive line at the tackle spot. The lack of movement came after the Bears finished tied for 22nd with 35 sacks last season and tied for 25th in quarterback knockdowns at 40.

Allen believed the new coaching staff was too focused on implementing its new scheme last year. The staff lost sight of the fundamentals and technique needed in order to have an efficient rush.

“That totally falls on me,” Allen said. “I think if we do a better job of the fundamentals and the techniques of doing those things that we’re going to ask them to do, that we’ll get better at that. And I think we’ll see our pass rush improve in terms of our guys rushing as one unit because it’s hard. There’s a lot of times we had a really good rush but we weren’t quite as good on this side so it allowed the quarterback to step up into a lane. That’s an area that we can improve on and I think our guys, when they did it right, it was pretty impressive.”

Chicago will likely stick with what they have in the building for time being as well. Defensive end Cam Jordan, an eight-time Pro Bowler, has been linked to the Bears given his history with Allen in New Orleans.

But Allen dismissed the idea of adding to the group.

“My experience with him was outstanding,” Allen said. “Cam’s going to be a fricking Hall of Fame player, is a Hall of Fame player. I don’t know that there’s been a ton of discussion about that. I think we feel pretty good about where we’re at and what we have and yet, you never know what opportunities might present themselves down the road.”

On growing the offense

The Bears consider themselves in a much different position than they were last season, especially on offense. Johnson commented earlier in the offseason that the unit looked completely different at the end of the season compared to the beginning of training camp last year.

Taylor said that’s the case because there’s far less teaching this time around. At this point last year, players and coaches were still learning Johnson’s system, terminology and expectations. Now players know it all and can just focus on improving in different areas.

“So now I just think there’s a little bit more confidence from everybody in what we’re going, what certain things mean and you start to see, again, those skill sets start to flourish a little bit more,” Taylor said. “So hopefully the goal is that we hit the ground running a little bit more where last year we were trying to get everybody up to speed.”

Part of that improvement comes through working with the Bears defensive coaches.

Taylor said Bears offensive coaches will work together with defensive coaches and even players to understand what they can do better. They’ll ask defensive scout players to practice a play a certain way in order to improve and ask what they’re seeing in order to make adjustments.

“You’re doing it just to get better as a unit,” Taylor said. “Certain things that maybe we can expose our defense to that we know people do as well. So they’re seeing it throughout the spring. But things that we think could fit our arsenal throughout the course of season.”

On Taylor taking over

This will be the second time Taylor will serve as an offensive coordinator. Taylor held the role with the Jacksonville Jaguars from 2022 to 2024 until he joined the Bears last season as the team’s passing game coordinator.

Although Johnson is the one calling the plays, Doyle showed how important the offensive coordinator role is. Doyle took care of the offensive meetings when Johnson had to handle team business as well as making halftime adjustments, amongst other things.

Taylor was excited to hold the same role moving forward.

“Ben’s not able to be in all the offensive staff meetings so I try to just steer the ship in terms of where we’re going, fill the gap when he’s not in the room, relay his message to the staff, really more than anything, and provide some guidance on where we’re going, what’s ahead, preparing for rookie camp but also preparing for our veterans coming in Monday again and what that week’s going to look like when Ben’s not around,” Taylor said. “All that comes from Ben. I spend a lot of time with him or he and I talk to make sure we’re on the same page and I carry that message to the rest of the offensive staff.”

Even if Taylor’s not the one calling the plays, he has an extensive catalog of plays to add to the mix. Johnson said during the NFL annual meeting in March that Taylor was the most-organized coach he’s met in his career.

“That totally falls on me. I think if we do a better job of the fundamentals and the techniques of doing those things that we’re going to ask them to do, that we’ll get better at that. And I think we’ll see our pass rush improve in terms of our guys rushing as one unit because it’s hard.”

—  Dennis Allen, Chicago Bears defensive coordinator

Taylor started keeping track of the plays when he was the Philadelphia Eagles. He keeps the plays on two different 10 terabyte drives that he brings with him to whatever team he joins.

“That’s just a part of having joy doing that,” Taylor said. “I felt like that brought value to my role of whatever role I was, what I could contribute. Video examples, ideas, things like that and being organized with it. That was just something that appealed to me and was a strength of mine I felt like.”