couchscout
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As I've mentioned here on a few occasions, I'm an active football coach, currently I coach the OL, but I've also coached WRs in the past and even got to call the plays for a couple seasons. This doesn't necessarily make me any more or less qualified that anyone else to analyze game tape and come up with a conclusion about a player, but thought I would throw it in there.
Back before the 2004 season I was in between jobs, I was actually trying to leave coaching and become a scout, which has always been my dream. The NFL is a brotherhood, and unless you know people it's next to impossible to break in to. One of the things I decided to do was re-watch my DVRed copies of every game from the 2003 season and do an in-depth breakdown on every starter + all important players, as well as the GM, HC, OC, and DC. I've been doing this ever since. I use that analysis to forumulate opinions about specific players and the overall success of the team the following season. I've been really accurate so far, coming within 1 game of predicting the correct final record every year except 2008 which I think most of us missed badly on.
Recently I read somewhere (I think here) that Roy Williams did most of his damage this season in the first quarter and faded throughout the rest of the game. This is not a trend I had caught onto in my evaluation so I went back and re-watched every game to see if that was true, and what, if any role that played in the offensive game plan.
In specific, I grade recievers almost exclusively off of replays of other WRs making catches. Everytime they show a replay with a different camera angle of someone making a catch, I find Roy and watch him. Its not perfect, and WRs and Safeties are by far the hardest positions to grade this way. But its better than nothing.
Here is what I initially wrote about Roy after my first evaluation:
In my opinion, Roy Williams is pretty much completely worthless with very few exceptions. (I should point out that I wrote this before Drew Pearson came out and said what he said) He only has 3 routes, the slant, the go, and the seam/skinny post. By far his best route is the slant which I would rate a 8-8.5, would be a 9.5+ is he caught the ball 99% of the time. His go route is around a 6.5-7 and his seam/skinny post is around 7-7.5. The main problem is all the rest of his routes are below 5, and his deep out in particular is about a 1-1.5. He's not quick out of his cuts, he doesn't get off the line well, and he drops the ball far too often to be a real threat in the passing game. Teams were able to consistently single cover him and take him out of the game. Also, this season he started a very disturbing trend of dropping the ball if a defender was touching him. I only started really paying attention in the last half of the season, but I can't remember a single time he caught the football while a defender was touching him. All of his catches were wide open, and every single one of his drops except the one he "lost in the lights" happened while a defender had at least a hand on him. Roy desperately needs to work on his route running, quickness and acceleration if he is to keep his job past next season.
However, my opinion of him has changed slightly based on what I started to notice when re-watching the games. What was actually happening, was teams were trying to straight single cover him early in games, but he was killing everyone with the slant route. He deserves credit for being nearly uncoverable on that route. So eventually they started having the backside OLB sit in the slant throwing lane to take away that throw, which led to Garrett using that fake slant/draw play we saw so much throughout the season. Roy runs a slant, Romo watches the LB, if he attacks the line or is flat footed he throws it, if the LB floats back he hands it off and there is one less defender in the box. This was remarkably effective, and lead to defenses doing some pretty crazy things on the strongside to account for that LB having to play in no man's land, which of course led to other plays being successful.
I'm not a big fan of Roy's playstyle, or attitude, but I have to give him credit for demanding a double team throughout most games, even if it was quite unconventional.
*Side note: If teams try to do this with Dez in the slot...it's gonna get really ugly, LBs have a lot to do with stopping slot recievers, they can't be concentrating on stopping Roys slant, watching for the fake slant/draw, and helping the nickel corner all at once.
Back before the 2004 season I was in between jobs, I was actually trying to leave coaching and become a scout, which has always been my dream. The NFL is a brotherhood, and unless you know people it's next to impossible to break in to. One of the things I decided to do was re-watch my DVRed copies of every game from the 2003 season and do an in-depth breakdown on every starter + all important players, as well as the GM, HC, OC, and DC. I've been doing this ever since. I use that analysis to forumulate opinions about specific players and the overall success of the team the following season. I've been really accurate so far, coming within 1 game of predicting the correct final record every year except 2008 which I think most of us missed badly on.
Recently I read somewhere (I think here) that Roy Williams did most of his damage this season in the first quarter and faded throughout the rest of the game. This is not a trend I had caught onto in my evaluation so I went back and re-watched every game to see if that was true, and what, if any role that played in the offensive game plan.
In specific, I grade recievers almost exclusively off of replays of other WRs making catches. Everytime they show a replay with a different camera angle of someone making a catch, I find Roy and watch him. Its not perfect, and WRs and Safeties are by far the hardest positions to grade this way. But its better than nothing.
Here is what I initially wrote about Roy after my first evaluation:
In my opinion, Roy Williams is pretty much completely worthless with very few exceptions. (I should point out that I wrote this before Drew Pearson came out and said what he said) He only has 3 routes, the slant, the go, and the seam/skinny post. By far his best route is the slant which I would rate a 8-8.5, would be a 9.5+ is he caught the ball 99% of the time. His go route is around a 6.5-7 and his seam/skinny post is around 7-7.5. The main problem is all the rest of his routes are below 5, and his deep out in particular is about a 1-1.5. He's not quick out of his cuts, he doesn't get off the line well, and he drops the ball far too often to be a real threat in the passing game. Teams were able to consistently single cover him and take him out of the game. Also, this season he started a very disturbing trend of dropping the ball if a defender was touching him. I only started really paying attention in the last half of the season, but I can't remember a single time he caught the football while a defender was touching him. All of his catches were wide open, and every single one of his drops except the one he "lost in the lights" happened while a defender had at least a hand on him. Roy desperately needs to work on his route running, quickness and acceleration if he is to keep his job past next season.
However, my opinion of him has changed slightly based on what I started to notice when re-watching the games. What was actually happening, was teams were trying to straight single cover him early in games, but he was killing everyone with the slant route. He deserves credit for being nearly uncoverable on that route. So eventually they started having the backside OLB sit in the slant throwing lane to take away that throw, which led to Garrett using that fake slant/draw play we saw so much throughout the season. Roy runs a slant, Romo watches the LB, if he attacks the line or is flat footed he throws it, if the LB floats back he hands it off and there is one less defender in the box. This was remarkably effective, and lead to defenses doing some pretty crazy things on the strongside to account for that LB having to play in no man's land, which of course led to other plays being successful.
I'm not a big fan of Roy's playstyle, or attitude, but I have to give him credit for demanding a double team throughout most games, even if it was quite unconventional.
*Side note: If teams try to do this with Dez in the slot...it's gonna get really ugly, LBs have a lot to do with stopping slot recievers, they can't be concentrating on stopping Roys slant, watching for the fake slant/draw, and helping the nickel corner all at once.
Great stuff, my friend. We can all be wrong at any given time, but nothing beats the honest, sound opinion of a football mind. Many thanks for your contributions, and good luck in chasing your dreams. This board is populated by many a "connected" folk in the Cowboy realm, many of whom lurk silently. You never know who might be reading, so keep it up.
