The third one was mostly just about Greg Williams. He was referred to as a dumb jock when he was younger, and carries it as a chip on his shoulder, as a more cerebral coach. It talks about him having all sorts of prestigious speaking engagements and such, but doesn't want it publicly known because he doesn't like the perception of him as a cocky, arrogant guy. Problems arise with the fall of the defense, his admission that his cover-two defense might be fading into ineffectiveness, and that article from ESPN (they pin on Archuletta, allegedly) that kills his methods.
The piece in ESPN hurt him.
"Gregg can be stubborn," said an NFL assistant who asked not to be identified because he considers Williams a friend and admires his coaching. "He believes he's the one who will make guys do things they haven't done before. He will say, 'Adam Archuleta might not be able to play in pass coverage, but he will for me,' or, 'LaVar Arrington can't do these things, but he will do them for me.' "
One of Williams's great strengths has been his ability to take the base "46" defense of his first NFL mentor, Buddy Ryan, and adapt it to whatever situation arises. For instance, when he was the Tennessee Titans' defensive coordinator in 1999, the season they went to the Super Bowl, his teams used lots of man-to-man coverage on pass plays. The next year, with a defense less suited to such coverages, he used almost no man-to-man. The Titans wound up with the top-ranked pass defense in the NFL that season.
They prop up him getting the #3 defense, without alot of talent, and making Pierce into a star. They also quote a coach who suggested that Williams hinted to Snyder that Pierce wasn't irreplaceable, or he'd have had him back.
"That one's on Gregg. He got what he wanted," the coach said.
It talks more about the failed personnel decisions - letting Walt Harris, Rumph, and Arrington walk and further destroying their depth while picking up AA and Carter.
Archuleta was so bad a fit he was yanked from the starting squad in the middle of drills one day in November. Troy Vincent trotted out to replace him and Archuleta barely saw the field in ensuing weeks. And nobody has ever told him why, he said.
Also, it talks about the strain Saunders offense puts on the defense, and how Williams influenced Gibbs decision tog et Saunders.
When the Commanders hired Al Saunders to run their offense last winter, one NFL assistant said Williams was troubled by the move, not from any dislike for Saunders but because he worried that Saunders's frenetic offense, which often produced touchdowns quickly, would put pressure on Williams's defense. With the pace of the game accelerated, the defense would naturally give up more yards and points and its ranking would suffer.
"I can't do this," the assistant said Williams told him. The assistant asked that he not be identified by name because he considers both men to be friends.
When asked about this, Williams said he has a high regard for Saunders going back to Super Bowl XXXIV, when Saunders's Rams beat Williams's Titans. In fact, Williams is convinced he's the reason Saunders is with the Commanders, having gone through his file on the coach while he himself was on several lists for head coaching openings last January. He decided if he were to be offered a job, Saunders would be his first choice for offensive coordinator, a fact he said he mentioned to Gibbs one day.
A few days later, Gibbs walked into Williams's office and said he had hired Saunders, shocking Williams, who never knew the Commanders were courting him.
"I hired him because of what you told me about him," Williams remembered Gibbs telling him.
Williams smiled. "He's here because of me bragging on him to Coach" Gibbs, he said.
Either way, to outsiders, Saunders's offense has in fact affected the Commanders' defense -- a lot. Cowboys Coach Bill Parcells mentioned as much in a New York Times magazine article in the fall. While watching game tape of the Commanders, he noted how little regard Saunders seemed to have for his defensive coordinator. The NFL assistant who said Williams fretted about the hiring has watched the Commanders this season specifically to see how Williams would deal with the faster pace of the offense. He agreed with Parcells's assessment, adding that it was the biggest reason for Washington's defensive collapse.
The rest of it talks about his personality. Donahoe is supportive of him, considering the mess in contracts Buffalo was sidled with. His former players were supportive, too. There was an interesting story, if you read it, about him starting in Buffalo. He was invited to a party in the neighborhood, and went to embrace the community. Some yahoo was there and grilled him on the team, the next day sports talk radio reports he was at the party, drunk out of his wits, fighting his wife, and fell in a pond. Makes him withdrawn.
Williams's hollering inspires them. If he walks into a meeting room, freshly pressed, with neat creases in his shirt and pants and promises them that he has a game plan that is guaranteed to bamboozle Sunday's opponent, they're all for it.
"I like that underdog approach," Springs said. "Gregg is a little 'we're going to get after them' in his approach. I like that."
"Gregg Williams is a very tough, very verbal coach. When I was there, I respected him a lot," said Pierce, now with the Giants. "He may be killing his players in practice, but he was the first guy patting you on the back after you've made a big play."
When asked why some players might seem to be turned off by Williams's approach, Bengals defensive tackle Sam Adams -- who played for Williams in Buffalo -- scoffed.
"Probably because they're soft," he said. "He's an aggressive, hard-charger. He's going to dog you as he sees fit. Some cats can't handle that."
I left this article with some more respect for Williams.
