Matt Eberflus isn't doing anything fancy in regards to building the defensive side of his coaching staff. He wants to run the system that had lots of success the past four years with the Indianapolis Colts. So the logical thing to do in such a case is bring the assistant that made it possible with him. Already he'd secured linebackers coach Dave Borgonzi and cornerbacks coach James Rowe. Now the Chicago Bears have their new defensive coordinator.
Alan Williams has been one of the better defensive back coaches in the NFL going back 20 years. He helped the Colts win the Super Bowl in 2006, his secondary making some critical plays to knock off the Bears in that game. In terms of coordinating experience, he brings two years of it from his time with the Minnesota Vikings in 2012 and 2013. A run that started off well but ended in a somewhat ugly fashion.
It will be interesting to see how his second stint goes.
In 2011, the Vikings had the 31st ranked defense in points allowed. The next season, Williams' first as defensive coordinator, they improved to 14th and helped the team make the playoffs. It was an encouraging step in the right direction. Then in 2013 the unit collapsed back to dead last in the league and the coaching staff was fired. There were multiple reasons for this. Yes, the play calling was one of them but it also didn't help the team lost star safety Harrison Smith for a large chunk of the season to injury. This opened a gigantic hole in their pass defense, which finished 31st. The truth is Eberflus wanted somebody he knew and trusted to run not just any defense, but his defense. Few many are more experienced in the Tampa-2 scheme than Williams. He spent a decade in it under Tony Dungy during the 2000s and another four under Eberflus from 2018 to 2021. A lot of success happened during those stretches. It isn't crazy to think he's learned some lessons from what happened 10 years ago. The Chicago Bears should benefit from that.
