Hub Arkush: Bears new coordinators all agree legacy, Matt Eberflus are Bears’ best selling points

LAKE FOREST — The Bears’ new defensive, offensive and special teams coordinators all appear to have at least one thing in common.

Alan Williams, Luke Getsy and Richard Hightower are all huge Matt Eberflus fans.

After spending the past four seasons as Eberflus’ secondary coach and right-hand-man in Indianapolis, and then following him to Chicago to run the defense, it’s pretty obvious how Williams feels.

But when asked of Getsy and Hightower why Chicago, they both noted an instant connection with Eberflus in the interview process. They felt excitement that he believes everything must be done team-first and that his coaches’ responsibility is to be “of service to the players,” in Eberflus’ own words.

They appear committed to adjusting to their players as opposed to expecting players to adjust to them.

With that as the take-off ramp, I asked Williams on Thursday how exciting it is to arrive with the amount of All-Pro talent already here in guys such as Khalil Mack and Robert Quinn, but if it also will be difficult with them now “middle-aged” to evaluate whether to build around them or prepare to move on.

“First, I’d say you have no idea how exciting it is to be here and having those guys,” Williams said. “Second, I would say shame on you to say those guys are middle-aged when we’re in the age of our athletes taking care of their bodies, eating better, going, playing longer. Tom Brady just retired. I’m not sure what middle-aged is.

“I’m going to open up my scope, I’m going to think outside the box. Then, I’ll wait for those guys to show me what they have. I haven’t looked at it in detail, but as far as I know, those guys are still productive. So that means they have a lot of years left, and a lot of tread on the tires. So with that in mind, I’m excited.”

Hightower arrives as the Bears’ special teams coordinator after a relatively successful five-year run with the 49ers in the same job and a career moment in their recent playoff win over the Packers. He said he chose a second stint with the Bears because of Eberflus and what he sees as a unique opportunity.

“[Eberflus is] a man of high character,” Hightower said. “He’s a man that wants the staff to be team-first, and I just feel like we’re in lockstep with everything that we believe in terms of high effort players, high intensity, just the guys that want to play hard, play fast, play physical, and that’s really Chicago Bears football.

“I mean that’s the history of Chicago Bears football, so just a great man, and I can’t wait to get started for him.”

As the only rookie coordinator of the group with a connection to the Shanahan/McVay/LaFleur coaching tree that is taking the league by storm, primarily on offense, and here to fix decades-old problems on offense and at quarterback, Getsy of course will draw the most interest and scrutiny.

Asked about his philosophies, his time in Green Bay and what he hopes to do here, Getsy also appeared to be singing from the Eberflus hymnbook.

“Throughout my entire coaching journey, the importance of the relationship with your player has just been more evident,” Getsy said. “The importance of it is so critical to the football team. You give one specific example of Matt [LaFleur] and Aaron [Rodgers], but to me it’s even deeper. It’s with everybody. That’ll be an important part of who we are as a coaching staff.

“As we were evaluating who’s gonna be on the offensive staff and who’s not, the most critical aspect was to make sure we were getting the right person or the right people in this building that we can develop those relationships and then have that spill over to the players. If we can get the players and coaches to be in that harmony, we’re gonna have something special.”

We often talk about the importance of the right chemistry in locker rooms, but it’s hard to recall hearing it talked about so much within a coaching staff.

It is a message Eberflus brought on his first day on the job, however, and hearing from his top three assistants, he seems to be making his point.

• Hub Arkush is a Shaw Media correspondent.