Greg Williams cockyness(sp?)

Last year after the season ended everyone was all mad at greg williams when tom (forgot his last name) wrote this article which said how he was so cocky that he let all our players leave because he thought it was the system that made our defense so good.

I just want to point out that our top 2 members of our secondary are gone, and a top tier linebacker is gone. Right now our starting strong safety is a 2nd year 6th round pick, our starting DT is a 2nd year 5th round pick, our starting DE is a 35 year old vet who cant pass rush for his life, our starting FS is a rookie (who although very talented, has never played FS until mid season this year and is still a rookie), our nickle back is a first year player, our rotational DT (Golston) is a 2nd year 6th round pick, our rotational DE (Evans) is a 6 year vet who has gotten to 3 sacks only once in his career, our "pass rushing specialist" is a first year player who had one sack up untill the meaningless last game.

And yet, our defense kicks ass

Maybe he was right to be cocky?

Or maybe these guys can actually play and they play well together. It's not all about names and high draft status.

guys don't forget how to coach. coach Williams has had success in coaching defense his entire career. last year was an aberration. between injuries, and guys blowing assignments, you get a 30th ranked defense. look how good someone like Reed Daughty looks playing within the scheme

There's another possibility, and that's that some of the issues raised by that article were accurate, and the FO and coaching staff took care to address them. In particular, one thing that stood out to me was the notion that the safeties and corners had seperate coaches and the secondary as a whole never met together for meetings / training / film / strategy, which seemed really suspect.

Perhaps Gggggrilliamssss needed a little reality check after that meteoric rise in '05? Maybe ST took him aside and said, "look, help us help you". Gibbs has admitted as much for his part this season, that players asked him to ratchet down the intensity of practices late in the week so they'd be fresher for games. He listened, and they're winning.

winning cures a lot of evils

The best thing Williams did when he came was to kill the "Star System" when he arrived. While I loved LaVar, Williams was right for benching him when he didn't trust that Arrington would stop freelancing. With all the injuries we've had this season, it is crucial that guys play their assignment every single play, and because of that, the whole is far greater than the sum of the parts on defense these days.

I think that Gregg Williams should buy stock in LondonFletcher.INC. That's what i think.

I think that Gregg Williams should buy stock in LondonFletcher.INC. That's what i think.

Without a doubt. We had a premiere MLB in 2005, nobody in 2006, and now we've got somebody comparable Pierce. It could be a coincidence, but I don't think so.

they decided to get players that can actually play. key players (griffin, washington, springs) had slightly less issues this year, and guys like holdman got off the field. andre carter also figured out how to play DE and stopped getting pushed around overnight (which is amazing).

calling rocky a top tier LB is laughable though. and rogers isn't nearly as good as springs, though he was playing much better than usual when he got hurt.

from last year:
pushover andre carter -> legit starting DE andre carter
injured lemar marshall -> all pro london fletcher
craptastic array of #3-5 corners -> smoot, prioleau, macklin, torrence
highway 57 (holdman) -> godfrey (a trashcan would have been an upgrade)
archuleta -> landry (again, a trashcan would be an upgrade)
inexperienced DTs -> extra year and offseason DTs
worn out brunell -> campbell/collins (helps rest D)

that's a lot of player upgrades, some from extra work, some from better talent evaluation.

guys don't forget how to coach. coach Williams has had success in coaching defense his entire career. last year was an aberration. between injuries, and guys blowing assignments, you get a 30th ranked defense. look how good someone like Reed Daughty looks playing within the scheme

Yeah I gotta agree. Williams has run good defenses forever. He knows how to coach and how to gameplan. His schemes work. Last year is one year where things didn't work. I'll err on the side of history and admit it was probably more the players execution that lacked last year more than anything else. Between injuries and ineffectiveness our players just didn't get it done. And Doughty is a great example. I mean is he really a starting safety in this league? I am not so sure. He certainly doesn't possess the ideal physical skills so his play must be a combination of effort and scheme.