During his five months with the Carolina Panthers, defensive end Jared Allen continually raved about the chemistry inside the locker room. He could have just been saying all the right things, of course.

But two weeks after he rode off into retirement, Allen assured that what he said in his short time in Carolina was what he saw.

"I was humbled this last year being on a team that embraced literally ever cliché you could possibly think of," Allen admitted on NFL Network's Total Access Thursday.

"That place is literally a walking cliché. I got in there and was like, this can't be real. It's like a mirage, and no one knows about it? This is cool, ... There's zero drama. Zero. I mean, I've never been on a team where there's zero locker room drama at all."

Allen, who spent his first 11 seasons with the Chiefs, Vikings and Bears, credited Carolina's veterans for producing that type of atmosphere. But he saved his biggest praise for the tone-setter at the top.

"It's all because coach (Ron) Rivera has set this culture that it is a player-run locker room, but that stems from the head coach," Allen said. "He's in there, he knows the problems, he's up to date, nothing's getting by him. He addresses things honestly — 'This is the way we operate, but I want you to be yourselves. Be yourselves within our operation.'

"Guys respect that and guys respond to that. And they coach the crap out of you, but in a good way. It's not overly done."

A challenge for those coaches now is a young group of defensive ends. Allen's retirement and the Thursday release of Charles Johnson leaves 28-year-old Mario Addison as the position's elder statesman.

If Johnson finds a cold market during his foray into free agency, he could find himself back in Carolina. But for now, that group has been handed over to the kids.

"Kony (Ealy) took huge steps from when I first got there," Allen said. "They've got Mario Addison there, but Charles is a huge leader in that locker room. So hopefully he gets to finish his career there. I don't know if they're going to get something done.

"But it's a cool spot and they'll be just fine."