MOBILE, Ala. — Matt Eberflus is bringing a Colts cohort with him to run the Bears defense.
Alan Williams, the Colts’ defensive backs/safeties coach the last four seasons, was named the Bears’ defensive coordinator on Wednesday. He will call plays and run Eberflus’ 4-3, Cover 2 scheme. Eberflus was the Colts’ defensive coordinator the past four seasons.
The 52-year-old Williams has spent the last 21 years in the NFL. He was the Vikings’ defensive coordinator from 2012-13 and was the Lions’ defensive backs/safeties coach from 2014-17. He worked for the Colts in between, first as a the defensive backs coach from 2002-11 and then in the same role starting in 2018, when Eberflus was named defensive coordinator.
He’d been considered the favorite to land the job.
“Alan has really good command of the whole picture,” Colts head coach Frank Reich said Tuesday. “Alan is fast on his feet as a thinker. Listening, being on the headset and hearing ‘Flus’ call the defenses, interact with the defensive staff, hearing Alan’s input, hearing the dialogue between he and Flus, how dynamic it was, how much ‘Flus’ trusted him over those four years seeing that relationship develop.
“I just think Alan has great energy on the field. Watching Alan run drills on the field, he’s got good energy, good body language, got a good positive vibe to him, can connect. So Alan’s an excellent football coach.”
Eberflus is bringing another in another former Colts coach, Dave Borgonzi, to be in charge of the team’s linebackers. He spent the last four seasons in the same role with the Colts. He coached alongside Eberflus for three years in Dallas, when he was both an offensive and defensive assistant. Borgonzi coached under Lovie Smith in Tampa Bay from 2014-15. With the Colts, he helped develop star linebacker Darius Leonard. Borgonzi’s brother, Mike, worked closely with new Bears GM Ryan Poles in the Chiefs’ front office.
Eberflus picked an offensive line coach, too — Chris Morgan, the assistant offensive line coach for the Steelers last year and the offensive line coach for the Falcons from 2015-20. In Atlanta, Morgan ran zone concepts from the Shanahan coaching tree from which new Bears coordinator Luke Getsy sprung. Bears considered the offensive line coaching role critical to their team; Poles and assistant GM Ian Cunningham are both former linemen.
The Bears are working to fill out Eberflus’ staff. The team interviewed Joe Brady on Tuesday but he is set to become the Bills’ quarterbacks coach.
