Matt Eberflus Bridges Troubled Water

The Bears feel they've dealt sufficiently with the Alan Williams resignation and Justin Fields' comments about coaching.

They're moving on, whether anyone wants to know more about it or not.

There will be no further explanation coming from the team now about Williams' resignation but coach Matt Eberflus did say he had told players why it occurred on Wednesday, even though they told reporters Thursday in the locker room they didn't have a clue about it.

"So, once the news was out, it was after of course after practice," Eberflus said Friday. "It was later in the day. Guys were in position meetings. And what I did was I went around to each position room, talked to the guys."

Some players were in walk-throughs and not meetings. Eberflus went to them as well.

"And told them, 'Hey, this is what it is,'" he said. "And going forward the defensive staff is gonna still be intact where they are. Everybody's got their same responsibilities. And Sunday I'll be calling the defense. Asked them if they had any questions and worked it through from there in that time window."

Eberflus continuing as defensive signal caller seems natural enough since he was the defensive coordinator for the Colts using the same scheme for four years. There are some potential candidates familiar with the scheme who might be available if they wanted to go outside the team, like Rod Marinelli and Leslie Frazier.

"When I was in the interview process, you know, you go through and you have to either be the CEO (type) and be that, or be the play-caller, OK, and the head coach," Eberflus said. "You have to be flexible there during those times. Your vision has to be both at that time. When you're working through those things and you see the best scenario for that particular football team. So you're always ready to go ahead and do that as a defensive coordinator. I feel very comfortable with calling the defenses and being the head coach.

"Again, I interviewed again for six jobs–from '18 to the one I got here. The sixth one I got. That, to me, is a natural fit for where we are right now and I think it's going to be a good fit."

The resignation seemed sudden, although Eberflus called defensive signals in last week's game because Williams wasn't at practices last week. There seemed almost an unnatural avoidance from players and coaches to express any feelings toward their former defensive coordinator, although this could all be part of their decision not to talk about it out of respect for Williams' privacy.

"Yeah, I mean obviously I was with him four years, five years here, you know," Eberflus said. "I have you know, a lot of, you know, friendship. I have feelings for him. But you know, and again, it’s he's resigned and you know it's for health and family and, and we'll see where it goes from there. And I, you know, I have feelings for Alan Willams, of course."

The other crisis issue of the week for Eberflus was a little less emotional but totally important since it was his quarterback saying things about what the offensive coordinator was doing.

Fields and Luke Getsy hardly appeared at odds before Thursday's practice, as they made light of the situation by hugging it out on the field in front of reporters and cameras.

Fields had said he felt he was being coached to the point he was becoming robotic. Then later he walked back the comments in the locker room.

"I step in," Eberflus said. "First of all, I'm in the quarterback meeting in the morning and in the afternoon, so it's easy for me to step in there."

It wasn't some sort of in-depth process.

"So I just step in there and say, 'hey, is everybody good here?' " Eberflus said. "I had Justin come up to my office, we talked and visited a little bit for five minutes before the breakfast club, and everything was good.

"So just put everything on the table, talk about it, see where it is, and if I have to step in and help I will do that, but in that case I didn't."

Eberflus saw no disrespect involved, finger-pointing or even an attempt to "throw someone under the bus," so to speak.

"He felt that was the right thing to do," Eberflus said. "I always tell them, 'Hey, if you think something's right and you wanna do right, step up and do it. If you see something that's wrong, something that you can help with, step up and say it.' That's how you be a leader. That's how you be a man, and a team. It's no disrespect to anybody, it's just telling somebody the truth.

"We always tell each other when you have a friendship or a partnership or a teammate that we give permission to each other to tell the truth because that's real honesty."

The Bears will head off to Kansas City feeling the honesty, leaning on each other more and together as a team, in Eberflus' opinion. Whether it helps considering the opponent remains to be seen, but at least they're not coming apart from within.

"I told them every day after practice, I said, 'Lean in and lean on each other,' " Eberflus said. "We've been spending time building relationships with each other and that locker room is tight.

"It's a tight locker room. You can see it in the way that they practice, and we're just going to keep pounding the rock. That to me is really good, how they practiced today and the energy they had out there tells me everything about the bond they have and the relationship they have as partners, as teammates in the locker room."

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