With the season opener in Carolina looming a week from Sunday, defensive coordinator Dennis Allen on Wednesday expressed faith in the Bears' revamped defensive line.
"I feel really confident with who we have on the defensive line," Allen said. "The style that we want to play, I think we've got guys that can do the things that we want to do. I felt like all along that was probably our deepest position group. I felt like we had a lot of guys that were NFL-caliber football players, and you can't keep all of them. But we feel good about where we're at."
Five of the six defensive tackles on the Bears' 53-man roster were acquired during the offseason: veterans Kentavius Street, Neville Gallimore and James Lynch and rookies Jordan van den Berg and Jayden Loving. The only returnee at the position is 12th-year pro Grady Jarrett.
Street, who has played seven NFL seasons with the 49ers (2019-21), Saints (2022), Eagles (2023) and Falcons (2023-25), has seemingly earned a role in the defensive line rotation after impressing in practice and preseason games.
"Quite honestly, I think he was the most productive tackle we had throughout the course of training camp," Allen said. "He's got the suddenness and the explosiveness off the ball that we're looking for to create penetration and disrupt the line of scrimmage. He's really taken to the things that [his coaches] are coaching and how we want to play that position."
Van den Berg, a sixth-round pick from Georgia Tech, has also made an impact this summer. The 6-3, 310-pounder, who grew up in South Africa playing rugby and cricket, has shown the athleticism that earned him a perfect 10.0 Relative Athletic Score (RAS) during pre-draft testing.
"The No. 1 thing was just how he came out of his hips when he was striking blocks and being able to get his head up was probably the biggest—and still probably the biggest thing that we've got to continue to work on with him because he's got all the skillset, he's got the physicality, he's got the effort," Allen said.
The Bears defensive coordinator feels that the next step for Van den berg will be to hone finishing moves that will enable him to shed blocks and make plays in the run game and also get to the quarterback.
"A lot of times with defensive linemen, you can have a lot of hidden production where you're just so disruptive that you create opportunities for other players," Allen said. "And that's probably where he's at right now. Hopefully, we can continue to work with him and develop some of those finishing moves where not only does he have disruption, but he has production."
Loving plays with the same type of passion and energy as Van den berg.
"We made a concerted effort this offseason that the guys that we bring into the building here, you wanted to see their football character come out on tape," Allen said. "You wanted to see guys that played hard and they played physical and they had great effort to the ball. All those things are things that they have.
"And when you're smart and you're willing to fricking work, then you're going to improve and you're going to get better. So, there was a skill set with him that we liked, and I continue to see him developing. But the thing that gets you the most excited is just how hard he plays. Effort's a talent and he's got that."
Willing to work
Another rookie that exudes the same fervor is safety Dillon Thieneman, a first-round selection from Oregon.
"He works his tail off," Allen said. "He's 100 miles an hour all the time on the practice field, and he's smart. If you have those characteristics and you're willing to work like he is, he's going to continue to improve.
"As with all of these young guys, every day is a new day. You're going to see something each and every day that you hadn't seen yet. The key is can you learn from those experiences and put that back in your memory bank so that the next time you see a similar formation, a similar stem, a similar motion, whatever the case may be, that that kind of starts to develop that library in in your brain that allows you to recall and then now you're starting to anticipate more than react."
Thieneman showed his range in last Saturday night's preseason finale against the Titans when he broke to the middle of the field to prevent receiver Carnell Tate from catching a long pass in the end zone.
"It was good to see and that's a skill set that I think he has," Allen said. "That range was something that showed up on tape at Purdue, it showed up at Oregon. That was something that we always felt like he could do.
"When you have an eraser back there in the middle of the field that can cover a lot of ground, that presents some challenges and it allows the outside pieces to be a little bit more aggressive if they know there's somebody back there in the middle of the field that's got the range to protect them over the top a little bit."
A step forward
Allen has been impressed with his first extended look at a healthy Jaylon Johnson. After two straight Pro Bowl selections in 2023-24, the veteran cornerback underwent core muscle surgery in 2025 and was limited to seven games.
"The last two weeks, when you talk about really the joint practice against Cincinnati, his mindset going into the joint practice versus Tennessee, I've seen a guy that's really kind of taken a step forward," Allen said. "I think he himself probably feels more like himself, and I've been really pleased with what I've seen out of him, in particular over the course of the last two weeks. His leadership has started to kind of come to the forefront a little bit, and that's needed. We need him to play at a very high level for us to be successful, and I think he understands that. I think he accepts that challenge and I think he's looking forward to it."
