Former Chicago Bears head coach Matt Eberflus denied quarterback Caleb Williams’ claim that he often watched film alone and without direction during his NFL rookie season.

Eberflus, now the Dallas Cowboys’ defensive coordinator, joined the Doomsday Podcast with Ed Werder last week, and said in no uncertain terms that the claim was untrue. 

“In the development of the quarterback position, and really all positions at my times with the Bears, we always had daily, coached film sessions,” Eberflus said (h/t 670 The Score). “That was all throughout the entire year. So, that’s what I observed. That’s where it was.”

Eberflus wouldn’t delve any further into the topic when asked, and then the conversation switched to the Cowboys.

The notion that Williams watched film on his own was part of a book excerpt released to promote ESPN reporter Seth Wickersham’s latest work, “American Kings: A Biography of the Quarterback.” According to Williams’ father, who spoke with Wickersham, Caleb told him: “No one tells me what to watch. I just turn it on.”

That detail was a relatively minor part of the excerpt, which was structured around the Williams family pondering ways to avoid Caleb being drafted by the Bears.

Caleb Williams ultimately decided to come to Chicago as the No. 1 overall pick after a pre-draft visit to Halas Hall.

“All of the things that were supposed to be these big things … never happened, in the sense that they were all thoughts,” Williams said on May 28. “They were all ideas. I think, if you’re in the situation … you think about all the options and you look at the history and the facts and all these different things, those are thoughts that go through your head. …

“And then, after I came on my visit here, it was a deliberate answer, a deliberate and determined answer that I had in wanting to come here.”

The Bears fired Eberflus and offensive coordinator Shane Waldron during a disastrous 2025 campaign that ended with a 5-12 record. The Bears since have hired Ben Johnson, whom Williams is excited to work with, as head coach, and upgraded the skill positions and offensive line.