Skip to main content
Bear Digest

How Bears Coordinator Dennis Allen Copes with Loss of Coby Bryant

There's a plan for approaching the loss of their starting safety due to injury, although it's a bit tougher right now with several backups also injured.
Gene Chamberlain|
Dennis Allen has a plan for dealing with Coby Bryant's injury, even though his backup group at safety is currently depleted.
Dennis Allen has a plan for dealing with Coby Bryant's injury, even though his backup group at safety is currently depleted. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

In this story:

Chicago Bears



Dennis Allen's quarter century in the league have him well prepared to head off the loss of safety Coby Bryant through possibly the fourth to sixth week of the regular season.

The dislocated knee and slight fracture have the Bears safety looking at a recovery time of eight to 10 weeks according to ESPN's Adam Schefter, and Allen said Tuesday this means free agent acquisition Cam Lewis alters his emphasis away from slot cornerback to become a safety.

"Yeah, I think he'll focus a little bit more on the safety position now," Allen said before Tuesday's practice.

Lewis played safety and just about any defensive backfield position with Buffalo before signing as a free agent this year. The Bears started him out playing both safety and slot cornerback, but more slot because starting slot Kyler Gordon remains on the physically unable to perform list due to an offseason calf injury.

"I don't really like to get into the comparison game and yet I think of a guy we had in New Orleans in P.J. Williams who was really a versatile type player," Allen said. "We drafted him in the third round to play corner. He played outside corner, he played in the slot in the nickel, he played at safety.

"So guys that are smart and instinctive that can play multiple roles are really valuable within the team."

This is Lewis exactly. Williams played seven seasons and had 34 starts but 89 games played and eight interceptions.

Saints cornerback P.J. Williams is the player he is reminded of when he sees Cam Lewis.
Saints cornerback P.J. Williams is the player he is reminded of when he sees Cam Lewis. | USA TODAY Sports

A jack of all trades in secondary

"I think he's played safety, he's played a dime linebacker, he's lined up at the nickel position, he's played outside before," Allen said. "I just think his experience and his versatility, this is why we have a guy like this is so that if you have injuries in certain spots we have guys that we can plug in that aren't just one-spot guys they can play multiple positions."

Most of Lewis' playing time came in the last two seasons with Buffalo. He was a slot cornerback for 135 snaps last year and 250 in 2024. He was free safety 70 plays in 2025 and 126 in 2024. And he played in the box 143 snaps in 2025 and 182 in 2024. His outside cornerback exposure has been limited to 61 snaps in six seasons, but this isn't where the Bears want him or need him at now. It's at safety, at least until backup safety Elijah Hicks returns from a shin injury. Allen had no timetable for when this would be, although earlier in camp GM Ryan Poles had suggested it wasn't going to be a long period of time.

With Lewis playing in back, it means someone else is in the slot until Gordon returns. Again, Allen has no idea when this will be.

"We'll see a lot more of Jaylon Jones, Josh Blackwell, Malik Muhammad," Allen said. "We'll see a lot more of those guys inside in the slot."

Blackwell is the only one of those three with any real NFL experience handling that positions. Blackwell got only two plays in the slot last year but in 2024 in a different scheme and with a different coordinator had 85 plays in the slot. He had 117 there in 2022.

Why bringing someone in is best

The best way for the Bears to address this would be to bring someone else in because the have a full month in training camp going forward. There are numerous veterans at various levels of cost, but being cash-strapped makes it tough on the Bears. They signed Marlen Sewell to the roster Tuesday and he is merely another camp body as a player who had been cut by the Chiefs and didn't play in the past.

"You know obviously it sucks to lose a guy like that for any particular time and he's a big part of what we have planned to do and will still be a big part of what we have planned to do," Allen said of Bryant. "But in all adversity comes also opportunity.

"And so it will be another opportunity for some other guys to step up whether it be somebody in the safety room to step up and take on that role or some of our other guys in the room to step up and become the playmakers and the leaders for the defense."

There's one other concern for Allen with this injury and it's how rookie Dillon Thieneman loses a mentor type starter in the secondary at the other safety spot.

Chain reaction of injury

"I don't think that's going to change a whole lot," Allen said. "I think our expectations for him as a rookie (safety), each and every day he learns a little bit more and he gets a little bit better. There's a lot to learn in the National Football League. There is a lot going on. The volume of what we do is more than what most rookies have ever done before. The volume of what they're seeing from our offense is going to be more than what they're used to seeing, you know.

"I don't think we put any higher expectations on him. I think our focus is you just be you, you do what you do, you continue to come in every day and work the way that you work and he'll continue to get better."

It's better to have one position down than make things even more confusing by sliding Thieneman over to take over some of the responsibilities of the other safety. They'll keep Thieneman in his spot and let him learn.

Sign Up For the Bears Daily Digest - OnSI’s Free Chicago Bears Newsletter



Add us as a preferred source on Google

Loading recommendations... Please wait while we load personalized content recommendations

Published
Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

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.

Home/News