The Chicago Bears hired Matt Eberflus to be their head coach, and while he comes from the defensive side of the ball he said that his role as a head coach will not be one side. He is the head coach now and that means coaching the whole team, which was an issue that Matt Nagy had.
So, unlike Nagy, who ran the offense until people had to take it from him, Eberflus already said that the defense will be Alan Williams to coordinate and that he will oversee it as any head coach would.
With that in mind fans know plenty about Eberflus, but what do they know about Alan Williams, and what he may bring?
3. Relationships with Mike Tomlin among other coaches
The first name that stands out on the resume of Alan Williams is not Eberflus, but rather Mike Tomlin. These two grew up in a similar area of Virginia, and then were teammates on the William and Mary football team.
Williams was three years older and left W&M in 1992, but the two linked up nine years later in Tampa Bay. Tomlin was named defensive backs coach while Williams was a defensive assistant.
The younger Tomlin may have helped Williams dip his toes into the NFL for the first time, but the 2001 Bucs coaching staff also featured Tony Dungy, Jim Caldwell, Rod Marinelli, who are familiar names among the Bears’ recent coaching search. The staff also featured Packers’ current defensive coordinator Joe Barry and famous defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin.
In 2002, the Bucs moved from Dungy to Jon Gruden, and Mike Tomlin stayed on with Gruden while Alan Williams followed Dungy to the Colts.
Williams met Leslie Frazier with the Colts and moved to Minnesota with Frazier before connecting with Jim Caldwell again on the Lions. His stint with the Lions led to Matt Eberflus reaching out when he got promoted to the DC role in Indianapolis.
Considering Caldwell, and Frazier were strong candidates for the Bears coaching job, and Tony Dungy was helping Bill Polian run the search, Alan Williams was always going to be in play here. Williams broke into the NFL with Rod Marinelli, who is a mentor to Eberflus, and likely bridged the two together. There is a long list of connections that makes this hire make a lot of sense.