This is going to be uncomfortable. Awkward. A bit unusual.

This weekend reunion in downtown Chicago for Matt Eberflus won't exactly be a lovefest. On Sunday afternoon, Eberflus will walk out onto Soldier Field, inside a stadium where he coached for three seasons, in front of a crowd that doesn't remember his 46-game tenure very fondly, to face a Bears team that still has 33 players he coached on its active roster.

Human nature would suggest Eberflus might have some curiosity about the reception he'll get. "I haven't thought about it," he told reporters in Frisco, Texas, on Thursday.

Eberflus is with the Dallas Cowboys now, the defensive coordinator under Brian Schottenheimer. And if an added level of theater was needed for Sunday's game, Eberflus' main task will be finding new ways to frustrate Caleb Williams, the quarterback he was responsible for developing last season but with whom he never forged a meaningful connection.

Ask Williams about his time with Eberflus, a rookie season filled with disruption and struggle, and publicly anyway, the Bears' quarterback moves like the pocket is collapsing, dipping, shuffling, looking for an escape. Williams' extended-play answer Wednesday about his time with Eberflus comprised 83 words. The most telling three he uttered twice. "We're past that."

Past Eberflus, he meant. Past anything associated with what became one of the more bewildering seasons in Bears history.

Just like Williams, Eberflus' efforts to turn the page have been intentional, particularly this week.

"We're keeping the process and our preparation the same as we always do," Eberflus said. "I'm always grateful and have much gratitude for my whole coaching career. So I always look back at everything as 'How you can learn. How you can grow and get better and improve.'"

Sunday afternoon's on-field chess match will be fascinating to monitor and remains the most important part of this weekend's gathering. Eberflus is certainly very aware of Williams' limitations as a quarterback and the schematic twists that make him most uncomfortable. Whether that offers the Cowboys a small competitive advantage is debatable. But certainly Eberflus will be looking to, well, pull a few new tricks out of his sleeve.

"He might throw a lot of curveballs at us," Bears receiver DJ Moore said.

Ben Johnson, the play caller who will try to stay one step ahead in keeping Williams comfortable and positioning the young quarterback for success, hasn't seemed all that worried about the inside insight Eberflus wields.

"Yeah, well, we've got guys in the building who know how his mind works," Johnson said. "So we have some information on schematically how he liked to approach my offense in general and his feelings on Caleb. I feel like we know what he knows. We'll be just fine there."

Added Williams: "You have to go out and execute the plays Ben calls. Other than that, I've played a bunch of ball versus that defense and know kind of how he runs it. So it's interesting in a way."

In more ways than one.

For whatever it's worth now, the Williams-Eberflus divorce of 2024 was messy. And despite what either has said publicly, the tension regarding all that unraveled last season is undeniable.

When excerpts of Seth Wickersham's book "American Kings: A Biography of the Quarterback" were released in May, Williams' camp painted the picture that hesitance existed from the start regarding their confidence in the Bears' ability to handle the launch of Williams' NFL career.

In retrospect, Williams also wasn't satisfied with the coaching guidance he received as a rookie from Eberflus and offensive coordinator Shane Waldron. (Waldron coached the quarterback for only nine games before his abrupt firing last November. Eberflus lasted only 17 days beyond that.)

The convenient conclusion to draw from within all that turmoil was that Williams' pre-draft doubts about the Bears were justified and that his rookie season faltered, in big part, because he wasn't paired with a coaching staff capable of bringing out his best.

To that end, it's fair to note that there was plenty of first-guessing before the Bears even drafted Williams about the organization's retention of Eberflus as head coach in 2024 and the faith in him to accomplish something he had zero track record with: successfully developing a quarterback.

After Eberflus' exit last fall, Williams reflected on what his biggest wishes were for whatever new coach the Bears hired, requesting "a coach who challenges us. A man of his word. A discipline coach. Meaning whatever his rules are, he's going to manage and control the team."

The subtext was obvious.

Still, Williams wasn't without culpability in how poorly his first season went. And, within league circles, enough breadcrumbs have been dropped to deduce that Eberflus and his staff weren't thrilled with the quarterback's preparation commitment levels. Or his occasional moodiness. Or his ability to handle the volume and sophistication of the responsibilities top-tier NFL quarterbacks must master.

As separations frequently go in the NFL, plenty of muck bubbles beneath the high road.

Back to Sunday and the awkward dynamics.

Eberflus' last stop through Soldier Field came in Week 12 last season, an overtime loss to the Minnesota Vikings in which Williams and the Bears showed encouraging fight. The Bears rallied from 11 points down in the final two minutes and brought Soldier Field alive, arguably more than it had been all season.

There were QB1 heroics, a recovered onside kick in the final minute and a 48-yard game-tying field goal by Cairo Santos as regulation ended. For a moment, Eberflus' Bears appeared positioned to snap a four-game losing streak, on the doorstep of improving to 5-6 and perhaps providing their season with a floatation device.

Alas, as with so many things with the 2024 Bears, that life raft popped. The Bears lost 30-27. And, as fate would have it, Eberflus left downtown that afternoon having coached his final home game with the Bears.

His last full day with the team came four days later. Thanksgiving at Ford Field. Lions 23, Bears 20.

That game will forever be defined less by that final score and more by the team's final-minute re-enactment of "Frozen." It was coaching malpractice, many said, as Eberflus - after Williams was dropped for a 6-yard loss on a quarterback draw with 32 seconds remaining - left his final timeout in his back pocket and watched another hope-filled rally explode in spectacular fashion.

Williams was frazzled and in need of a reset. Eberflus did nothing.

Ultimately, the clock ticked down from 30 ... to 20 ... to 10, 9, 8 ... Time ran out six seconds after the Bears took their final snap with Williams heaving a desperation throw toward wide receiver Rome Odunze near the end zone. Incomplete pass. Complete and utter disaster.

Eberflus' last formal visit with Chicago media came the next morning. On a previously scheduled day-after-game video call. Eleven questions. He was asked whether he expected to remain the team's coach beyond that holiday weekend.

"I'm confident I'll be working on San Francisco," Eberflus said, "and getting ready for that game."

Less than two hours later, word of his firing popped across social media, a chaotic and clumsy dismissal that created embarrassment for almost everyone involved.

That's not something that is easily forgotten.

Now, Eberflus' return to Soldier Field comes in an important Week 3 game that has just a little more attached. On Thursday, Eberflus reflected on his downfall in Chicago, on the profound disappointment he frequently felt for the players he coached.

"Once that settles in," he said, "then you work to the next day. The sun comes up and you move forward. You learn and you grow and you keep going. That's what true grit is."

As for what he learned?

"I can list a lot of things I learned," he said. "The biggest thing is that you have to be able to communicate well and do a good job there with everybody that's working."

Perhaps there's added irony that Eberflus' return comes a week after the Bears suffered another mystifying loss in Detroit. Sunday's nosedive at Ford Field may not have featured the same game-on-the-line meltdown as last Thanksgiving's defeat did, but the humiliation of surrendering 511 yards and 52 points isn't much less. Since the NFC North came into existence, the Bears have lost only four division games by at least 30 points. Before Sunday, the most recent was a 41-10 shellacking by the Lions on New Year's Day at the end of Eberflus' first season.

Now, the Bears' newest recovery effort is being led by Johnson, who is early on in his own process of trying to fix things out at Halas Hall and caught everyone's attention this week when he declared that his team's practice habits are "yet to reflect a championship-caliber team." That problem and a long list of others require urgent attention.

Eberflus, meanwhile, may not receive a hostile greeting from a Soldier Field crowd with so many new reasons to feel edgy. But it's also unlikely the former Bears coach will be welcomed with warmth.

His vision for attacking Williams and the Bears offense will take center stage. And the Bears' response will be notable.

For Caleb Williams and Matt Eberflus, an awkward reunion, a compelling chess match