Who Calls the Defensive Shots and Why

Alan Williams is the Bears defensive coordinator and insists he's no figurehead while also clearing up almost exactly how the team plans to use cornerback Kyler Gordon

New Bears defensive coordinator Alan Williams cleared up some of the mystery about how the defense would use rookie cornerback Kyler Gordon, along with how the flow of power within the defense itself works.

It became apparent at Friday's start to rookie minicamp that the Bears were at least pondering use of Gordon at right cornerback, where Jaylon Johnson has played when he wasn't being burdened with chasing the best receiver all over the field. 

However, during the post-practice press conference coach Matt Eberflus and Gordon himself couldn't rule out even spending time at slot cornerback.

"I like nickel, so I don’t find it very challenging,"  Gordon had said. "I just gotta do my job really. So, I’m just excited. I’m cool to play wherever, really."

On Saturday, Williams at least cleared up the issue by 33%, although it still remains undecided.

"We're just going to let him do what he does and kind of see how he shapes out and then give him one thing to do and as of right now that's outside," Williams said.

"And then we’ll see how much he can do and how much we can push him. As of right now, he'll be an outside corner. Not sure if that's left or right. That is yet to be determined and we'll go from there."

So at least slot cornerback can be ruled out.

The Dawgs are BARKIN'@kyler_gordon INTERCEPTION

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As for the defense itself, Williams is viewed by some as a figurehead defensive coordinator because his head coach is also a defensive coach and they are playing his scheme.

"Well, I'm not quite sure if it's, and this is in a super respectful way, coach Eberflus' defense, really," Williams said. "I think we all have people that we picked up things from that we would say that he's picked up a few things from Rod Marinelli, who used to be here (in Chicago) and a few things from Lovie Smith, and a few things from Tony Dungy.

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"And so all those principles are those principles that have been around for a very long time. And I think what Matt has done, he's refined it. He's put some nice acronyms to it, which, which helps us all get to know what to do and it sounds sexy."

This would be Eberflus' HITS principle.

"But the fundamentals of what we do have been around for a very long time," Williams said. "So he's been outstanding, which, and what that means is, he's kind of stayed away, so I can put my stamp on it, so I can put my personality to it. And, you know, I commend him for that to every meeting or every practice, he's not looking over my shoulder, so (that) I gotta go, 'Oh, am I doing things right?' He's kind of stayed away and said, 'Alan, you take it, you run with it, you build it, you do it, put your stamp on it.' And then he's, you know, he's kind of stayed back similar to what coach (Tony) Dungy did when he was in Indianapolis. He stayed back."

Williams was defensive coordinator in Indianapolis and Minnesota in the past. In Minnesota, he was working under Leslie Frazier, another defensive side head coach. With the Colts, Dungy was a defensive side head coach, as well.

Either way, he said he welcomes Eberflus' input and said he gets it at times.

"He stepped in, and he lends his expertise or he steps in and says, 'Hey, have you thought about this?'

"So he's been A-plus and in every way about that."

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven