TEK2000
New Member
- Messages
- 2,152
- Reaction score
- 0
Yes, its another Roy Williams thread.. SURPRISE! And, unfortunately for you lazy people... its LONG.
Anyway, I'm hoping that most of you that know me know that I'm not going to waste the space of another thread with the same old stuff everyone else has been posting about moving Roy to LBer. I'm going to ATTEMPT to show a few things that will hopefully make you think a little more about Roy's situation.
1. First and foremost, Roy Williams is under a microscope for every play that he makes or misses. No passing defense has allowed more passing TD's during the 2006 season than the Washington Commanders. This is due in no small part to Sean Taylor and Adam Archuleta. Taylor allowed 4 TD's in the first 4 games alone (all to TE's I believe). Do we hear about this as much as we hear about Roy Williams being awful in coverage? NO!
Taylor allows 4 TD's in the first 4 games. Williams allowed only 3 TD's through the first TEN games! Yet, Williams is the one that is continually blasted by fans and the media.
2. I'm not going to sit here and attempt to say that coverage is Roy's strong suit. We ALL know its obviously not. BUT, when you compare Roy to other safeties around the league, its nowhere near as bad as many people try to make it seem.
Lets take the Jeremy Stevens TD as an example.
FIRST! Take a look at this video of Troy Polamalu vs Jeremy Stevens during Super Bowl XL.
CLICK HERE 4MB divx video
SECOND! Take a look at this video of Roy Williams vs Jeremy Stevens in our recent game against Seattle.
CLICK HERE 2.8MB divx video
What's the first thing you notice about these 2 videos?....
Its the SAME exact play in both videos. Its a play designed to get a matchup with Jeremy Stevens on a safety and have the WR do a pick on the safety. Stevens drives hard off the line as if he's running a deep route then cuts it off and runs an out. The results are exactly the same. The safety is peaking into the backfield and Stevens hits his out route and gets separation. Well designed play to get a favorable matchup for the Seahawks.
Does this excuse Roy Williams from giving up the play? Absolutely not. But, what it shows is that he's not the only Safety that is scored on. Its just that he's the only one that is highlighted for EVERY catch he gives up.
3. Roy Williams is blamed on plays where he is truly not at fault. On the 2nd Jeremy Stevens TD, Roy wasn't even covering Stevens. Roy was helping Newman cover the WR over the top. Bradie James was responsible for covering Stevens (yes, another favorable matchup for the Seahawks). Roy catches the blame because he happens to make it to Stevens before Bradie does.
Why is this true? Consider this: The RB runs out in motion and lines up wide before the ball is snapped. That winds up leaving a RB with Newman guarding him, and the WR with Bobby Carp guarding him, and Jeremy Stevens lined up at the TE position. There's 1 reciever to the far side with Henry guarding him. Right off the bat, this play is designed to exploit zone coverages. You wind up with Stevens running a deep route right up the middle of the field, the WR running deep as well which draws Roy to help Newman with him, and Carp has the zone in the flat where the RB goes. The Seahawks knew they'd have their TE being covered by our ILB and it worked for them... like it has for so many teams against us recently.
4. Roy to LBer? As I've posted many times already. I believe this is NOT the way to go. My thinking for this is primarily based on the assets that Roy has from playing in the OPEN FIELD as a safety. If you throw Roy Williams in as a LBer he'll be FORCED to take on blockers that outweigh him by 100+ pounds. As a LBer in the NFL you CANNOT run around blockers. RB's are too good for a LBer to be able to be successful by running around blockers. He'll be caught up in the traffic of the trenches and The Real Roy Williams will be gone forever. Roy's play recognition is 2nd to none. When healthy, he flies to the ball immediately when he's coming up to support the run and MAKES PLAYS. From the safety spot, he's not normally blocked by offensive linemen; he's usually being blocked by a FB or TE. When healthy, I'll take my chances with Roy versus a FB/TE and I expect he'll win that battle many times. The problem lately is that he isn't healthy... its obvious that he's wearing a shoulder brace and isn't unloading into people like the Roy Williams we know from previously.
5. We totally misuse Roy Williams. This problem is born out of 2 things. 1) The lack of a dependable FS to play deep centerfield rather than having to play cover 2 with Roy playing deep. Heck, we even had Roy playing the deep centerfield position when we faced New Orleans. We need a good FS to play that position rather than having Roy back there. 2) As Jon Kitna and various other Detroit Lions players stated, our defense REFUSES to adjust to what the offense is doing. What does this cause? MISMATCHES LIKE CRAZY. Sean Payton knew it, and after that EVERYONE knew it. This defense doesn't adjust! So, what does Payton and all the rest of the coaches after that do? They immediately get their offense into position to get mismatches on our players. A SHINING example of this is Roy Williams (Lions WR) being covered by Aaron Glenn man to man. We should have being doing EVERYTHING we could to avoid that matchup. You obviously can't avoid every mismatch, but you can certainly do a hell of a lot more than we did to avoid them.
Roy Williams should be played like a SS. He should be played exactly like Troy Polamalu was played last season when the Steelers had Chris Hope as their FS. Let him roam the field. Let him play within 15 yards of the line of scrimmage. Avoid having him in deep coverage whenever possible. Obviously, no SS ever gets to play STRICTLY close to the line and never cover... but when you minimize it, you minimize the risk of having your VERY GOOD player having to play in a position that exposes the weakest part of his game. Its like expecting the Denver OLine to all the sudden just win their individual matchups with brute force... they're not built like that.
6. The walking off from the media after the Seattle game. Well, sure, its not as upstanding as Tony Romo... but, personally, I completely understand why he does it. He gets absolutely no credit from the media for anything he does, then we expect him to stand there and act like he's hunky dory and everything is ok? I certainly would not be able to do that.
7. This defense does a pretty poor job of redirecting/jamming recievers at the line. In the NFL, if you let a reciever release without being touched, the reciever has an advantage over the cover guy right off the bat.
If we had guys that would cause the recievers problems in releasing from the line of scrimmage, it would benefit in 2 ways. 1) It takes longer for the reciever to run his route which WOULD FORCE THE QB TO HOLD THE BALL LONGER and allow our pass rush a split second longer to get to the QB. 2) It gets the reciever off their route and allows our coverage guys a split second longer to recognize that it is a pass play and begin moving in position to cover.
8. The missed tackle on Alexander when he shot into the backfield. VERY DISAPPOINTING! I expect more from Roy than that. He left his feet WAY too early and Alexander made a good move to avoid him.
I'm sure I'll think of more later on but that's it for now. Sorry for rambling some and making it so long.
Anyway, I'm hoping that most of you that know me know that I'm not going to waste the space of another thread with the same old stuff everyone else has been posting about moving Roy to LBer. I'm going to ATTEMPT to show a few things that will hopefully make you think a little more about Roy's situation.
1. First and foremost, Roy Williams is under a microscope for every play that he makes or misses. No passing defense has allowed more passing TD's during the 2006 season than the Washington Commanders. This is due in no small part to Sean Taylor and Adam Archuleta. Taylor allowed 4 TD's in the first 4 games alone (all to TE's I believe). Do we hear about this as much as we hear about Roy Williams being awful in coverage? NO!
Taylor allows 4 TD's in the first 4 games. Williams allowed only 3 TD's through the first TEN games! Yet, Williams is the one that is continually blasted by fans and the media.
2. I'm not going to sit here and attempt to say that coverage is Roy's strong suit. We ALL know its obviously not. BUT, when you compare Roy to other safeties around the league, its nowhere near as bad as many people try to make it seem.
Lets take the Jeremy Stevens TD as an example.
FIRST! Take a look at this video of Troy Polamalu vs Jeremy Stevens during Super Bowl XL.
CLICK HERE 4MB divx video
SECOND! Take a look at this video of Roy Williams vs Jeremy Stevens in our recent game against Seattle.
CLICK HERE 2.8MB divx video
What's the first thing you notice about these 2 videos?....
Its the SAME exact play in both videos. Its a play designed to get a matchup with Jeremy Stevens on a safety and have the WR do a pick on the safety. Stevens drives hard off the line as if he's running a deep route then cuts it off and runs an out. The results are exactly the same. The safety is peaking into the backfield and Stevens hits his out route and gets separation. Well designed play to get a favorable matchup for the Seahawks.
Does this excuse Roy Williams from giving up the play? Absolutely not. But, what it shows is that he's not the only Safety that is scored on. Its just that he's the only one that is highlighted for EVERY catch he gives up.
3. Roy Williams is blamed on plays where he is truly not at fault. On the 2nd Jeremy Stevens TD, Roy wasn't even covering Stevens. Roy was helping Newman cover the WR over the top. Bradie James was responsible for covering Stevens (yes, another favorable matchup for the Seahawks). Roy catches the blame because he happens to make it to Stevens before Bradie does.
Why is this true? Consider this: The RB runs out in motion and lines up wide before the ball is snapped. That winds up leaving a RB with Newman guarding him, and the WR with Bobby Carp guarding him, and Jeremy Stevens lined up at the TE position. There's 1 reciever to the far side with Henry guarding him. Right off the bat, this play is designed to exploit zone coverages. You wind up with Stevens running a deep route right up the middle of the field, the WR running deep as well which draws Roy to help Newman with him, and Carp has the zone in the flat where the RB goes. The Seahawks knew they'd have their TE being covered by our ILB and it worked for them... like it has for so many teams against us recently.
4. Roy to LBer? As I've posted many times already. I believe this is NOT the way to go. My thinking for this is primarily based on the assets that Roy has from playing in the OPEN FIELD as a safety. If you throw Roy Williams in as a LBer he'll be FORCED to take on blockers that outweigh him by 100+ pounds. As a LBer in the NFL you CANNOT run around blockers. RB's are too good for a LBer to be able to be successful by running around blockers. He'll be caught up in the traffic of the trenches and The Real Roy Williams will be gone forever. Roy's play recognition is 2nd to none. When healthy, he flies to the ball immediately when he's coming up to support the run and MAKES PLAYS. From the safety spot, he's not normally blocked by offensive linemen; he's usually being blocked by a FB or TE. When healthy, I'll take my chances with Roy versus a FB/TE and I expect he'll win that battle many times. The problem lately is that he isn't healthy... its obvious that he's wearing a shoulder brace and isn't unloading into people like the Roy Williams we know from previously.
5. We totally misuse Roy Williams. This problem is born out of 2 things. 1) The lack of a dependable FS to play deep centerfield rather than having to play cover 2 with Roy playing deep. Heck, we even had Roy playing the deep centerfield position when we faced New Orleans. We need a good FS to play that position rather than having Roy back there. 2) As Jon Kitna and various other Detroit Lions players stated, our defense REFUSES to adjust to what the offense is doing. What does this cause? MISMATCHES LIKE CRAZY. Sean Payton knew it, and after that EVERYONE knew it. This defense doesn't adjust! So, what does Payton and all the rest of the coaches after that do? They immediately get their offense into position to get mismatches on our players. A SHINING example of this is Roy Williams (Lions WR) being covered by Aaron Glenn man to man. We should have being doing EVERYTHING we could to avoid that matchup. You obviously can't avoid every mismatch, but you can certainly do a hell of a lot more than we did to avoid them.
Roy Williams should be played like a SS. He should be played exactly like Troy Polamalu was played last season when the Steelers had Chris Hope as their FS. Let him roam the field. Let him play within 15 yards of the line of scrimmage. Avoid having him in deep coverage whenever possible. Obviously, no SS ever gets to play STRICTLY close to the line and never cover... but when you minimize it, you minimize the risk of having your VERY GOOD player having to play in a position that exposes the weakest part of his game. Its like expecting the Denver OLine to all the sudden just win their individual matchups with brute force... they're not built like that.
6. The walking off from the media after the Seattle game. Well, sure, its not as upstanding as Tony Romo... but, personally, I completely understand why he does it. He gets absolutely no credit from the media for anything he does, then we expect him to stand there and act like he's hunky dory and everything is ok? I certainly would not be able to do that.
7. This defense does a pretty poor job of redirecting/jamming recievers at the line. In the NFL, if you let a reciever release without being touched, the reciever has an advantage over the cover guy right off the bat.
If we had guys that would cause the recievers problems in releasing from the line of scrimmage, it would benefit in 2 ways. 1) It takes longer for the reciever to run his route which WOULD FORCE THE QB TO HOLD THE BALL LONGER and allow our pass rush a split second longer to get to the QB. 2) It gets the reciever off their route and allows our coverage guys a split second longer to recognize that it is a pass play and begin moving in position to cover.
8. The missed tackle on Alexander when he shot into the backfield. VERY DISAPPOINTING! I expect more from Roy than that. He left his feet WAY too early and Alexander made a good move to avoid him.
I'm sure I'll think of more later on but that's it for now. Sorry for rambling some and making it so long.
You are an idiot... period. I bet you didn't even read the whole thing.
