Bears DC Alan Williams Out vs. Bucs for Personal Reasons; Matt Eberflus to Call Plays

The Chicago Bears will be without defensive coordinator Alan Williams this weekend as they travel to Tampa to take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Williams will be away from the team for personal reasons and head coach Matt Eberflus will take over defensive play-calling duties for the Bears, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter.

Schefter also reported that there is no current timetable for Williams' return to the team. He is in his second season as defensive coordinator.

Williams has been a member of Eberflus' staff dating back to the latter's time as the defensive coordinator for the Indianapolis Colts, serving as the defensive backs coach for four seasons.

He then followed Eberflus when he got hired to take over the top job in Chicago.

Williams' tenure as defensive coordinator certainly hasn't gotten off to the best of starts as the Bears finished towards the bottom of the league in total defense in 2022, surrendering 375.9 yards per game.

The only teams they were better than in that department were the Houston Texans, Minnesota Vikings and Detroit Lions.

It was more of the same to begin this campaign as Chicago got lit up by Jordan Love and the Green Bay Packers in its season opener, giving up 31 points and 329 yards.

As for Eberflus, he'll be taking over the defense for the first time since he was with the Colts, where he transformed a defense that was ranked 30th in the league when he arrived into a top-10 unit.