There's a lot of speculation surrounding former Chicago Bears defensive coordinator Alan Williams after Wednesday's news cycle that was highlighted by an earlier FBI raid on his home.

Williams resigned from his position that day, citing health reasons and the added desire to care for his family. Per CBS Sports, Matt Eberflus should continue calling defensive plays, like he did Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Misinformation has been swirling this week surrounding the unknown story of why Williams resigned from his job with the Bears leading many NFL fans wondering, who is Alan Williams? 

Williams' life before coaching

Williams is a native of Norfolk, Virginia and he went to Norview High. After graduating, he attended William & Mary College, where he played alongside current NFL head coaches Mike Tomlin and Sean McDermott. 

Per TribeAthletics.com, Williams "finished his playing career at W&M with 1,220 rushing yards and 15 rushing touchdowns, while he totaled 131 receptions for 1,331 yards with seven scores. As a senior, he led the Tribe in receptions (57) and receiving yards (598)". He graduated in 1992 and went back to coach at Norview High, where he served in a variety of roles such as running backs coach, defensive backs coach, and assistant head coach, per The Virginian-Pilot.

Williams coached at Norview from 1992-1995 and his dream, actually, was to coach his former high school team. That changed in 1996, however, when Jimmye Laycock, who was the head coach of William & Mary at the time, gave him a call and offered Williams a job his alma mater.

He coached running backs for two years before switching over to defensive backs for the following two years. Then, came his first NFL gig with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as an assistant defensive coach in 2001.

Williams' NFL career

Williams' first NFL coaching experience was a pretty damn good one. At the time, the Bucs had legendary defensive coordinator, Monte Kiffin, and future Hall of Famer, Tony Dungy, on its staff. Kiffin, along with Dungy, created the Tampa-2 defense, which was the catalyst behind the Bucs' first Super Bowl win in 2002. Williams' defensive philosophy has been adhered to a drop four, rush seven, zone coverage scheme ever since. 

Williams left the the Bucs before their Super Bowl season, however, and joined the Indianapolis Colts as the team's defensive backs coach. He coached there from 2002-2011, maintaining his title throughout and in 2006, he nabbed that Super Bowl ring he missed out on with the Bucs.

Williams was then hired to be the Minnesota Vikings' defensive coordinator in 2012. They made the playoffs that year with Teddy Bridgewater at quarterback, but 2013 was far less successful as the team finished with a 5-10-1 record that resulted in the firing of head coach Leslie Frazier and his staff.

That prompted Williams to join Jim Caldwell in Detroit. Williams assumed the role of defensive backs coach/safeties coach during his three seasons with the Lions, but was once again let go when Caldwell was surprisingly fired after two straight 9-7 seasons in 2016 and 2017. 

Williams returned to the Colts as safeties/defensive backs coach in 2018, where he worked under Matt Eberflus, who was the defensive coordinator. Eberflus was hired away by the Bears in 2022 and he subsequently hired Williams as his defensive coordinator. 

You can check out Williams' entire NFL coaching history, here.

Featured image via David Banks-USA TODAY Sports