Bears Alan Williams will miss Sunday’s game; Matt Eberflus to call the defense

On Friday at Halas Hall, Chicago Bears head coach Matt Eberflus announced that defensive coordinator Alan Williams would miss Sunday’s game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for a personal reason. Williams was also absent on Thursday for a person reason.

With Williams not making the trip to Tampa, Eberflus will take over defensive play calling.

Eberflus was the defensive coordinator for the Indianapolis Colts for four years before being hired away by the Bears in 2022.

“I’ve done it for 12 years total,” Eberflus said earlier today via ESPN about calling defensive plays. “Really, it’s more about the operation of the game-management side of it. When the offense is up, it’ll be normal business. And then throwing challenge flags and being right there with [offensive coordinator] Luke [Getsy] and the offense. With the defense up I’ll be making the calls. When we’re off the field, to make the corrections pretty quick, the guys on the sideline are going to help me do that with the players. And from there it’s just about setting up the next series, what’s coming the next series for those guys, if we can communicate that. And from there it’s just normal.”

No specifics are available regarding Williams, nor is a there a time frame for his return.