Legenedary singer Frank Sinatra once said, ‘The best revenge is massive success.’ In the NFL, sometimes you’re provided the unique opportunity to achieve massive success at the expense of the one individual you’d hope to get revenge on, and this weekend, that’s the exact position that Caleb Williams finds himself in.
Williams and the Chicago Bears will be welcoming the Dallas Cowboys to Soldier Field on Sunday afternoon, and standing on the opposite sideline overseeing the Cowboys defense is former Bears head coach Matt Eberflus, who coached the first 12 games of Caleb Williams‘ rookie season before getting fired. Despite such a depressing tenure in Chicago, Eberflus was brought in to be the defensive coordinator in Dallas under new Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer.
Now it should be mentioned, while there has been no legitimate nastiness between Caleb Williams and Matt Eberflus — only glancing comments that could be loosely considered adversarial or whispers of discontent — both the young quarterback and former head coach could look back on their abbreviated season together and have something at least resembling ill-will.
For Caleb, the 2024 season will be remembered as a rookie year that was submarined by a handful of perplexing coaching decisions made by head coach who had already lost the locker room and was clearly in over his head sitting in the big seat at Halas Hall. This brief experience indisputably stunted Williams’ growth and was largely why Bears fans were so enthused by the hire of Ben Johnson, an offensive-minded coach who will hopefully get the best out of Caleb.
But on the eve of this game where Caleb Williams will have the chance to make a statement at the expense of his former head coach, he’s taking the high road in the lead-up to the game, not giving Flus or the Cowboys defense any sort of bulletin board material, or any of the reporters in attendance an eye-popping headline that they could use for their story.
“It was good being able to become a Chicago Bear, and he [Matt Eberflus] made that decision,” Williams told reporters. “Happy to be here. Our time together wasn’t wasted. Obviously, we didn’t win as much as we wanted, but we’re past that, and we’re trying to focus on being 1-0 this week.”
How Will Bears Offense Prep For Matt Eberflus?
Despite the best efforts of reporters on the Bears beat in Chicago, Williams wouldn’t even tip his hand and elaborate on what it’s been like to prepare for the defense that will be coached up by his former head coach, insisting the prep has been no different than any other week.
“It’s the same as preparing each week for me,” Williams added. “You gotta go out there and execute the plays that Ben [Johnson] calls. I’ve played a bunch of ball against that kind of defense. Obviously, Matt [Eberflus] was my coach last year, so just being able to move past all of that and being able to go out there and help the Chicago Bears be 1-0 this week.”
Now as long as Caleb Williams has as firm of a grasp on the gameplan this week as he does of what he’s supposed to say in response to any question about Matt Eberflus, the Bears will likely be in good shape. But Williams’ new head coach isn’t content to take the high road.
When Ben Johnson was asked about whether he was concerned about Matt Eberflus and the Cowboys defense having the leg up on the Bears because he would theoretically know how to prepare for Caleb Williams, Johnson offered a sharp rebuttal.
“Yeah, well, we’ve got guys in the building that know how his mind works. So we have some information on just schematically how he liked to approach my offense in general and his feelings on Caleb,” Johnson said, per Adam Hoge of CHGO. “I feel like we know what he knows and we’ll be just fine there.”
While Ben Johnson may not be worried, he better hope the Bears are alert and play with a renewed sense of urgency on Sunday, because a loss to the Dallas Cowboys would drop Chicago to 0-3 on the young season, and historically, that mark has been something close to a death sentence. Since 1990, only 2.5 percent of teams that have started a season 0-3 have gone on to make the NFL Playoffs.
Caleb Williams Addresses Revenge Game Opportunity vs. Matt Eberflus