Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007...11:01 am by Lee Gibbons
A Grown Up Gregg Williams?
One of the most under looked, yet important aspects of these exhibition games has been the fact that LaRon Landry has been in the starting line-up from day one. Is it finally a sign of flexibility from Gregg Williams whose stubbornness cost the Redskins last year?
Since Williams joined the Redskins he’s stuck with two general philosophies – 1) Rookies don’t start until at least mid-season and 2) We aren’t changing our philosophy no matter how much the players don’t fit in it. Has last year’s debacle humbled Williams enough so he can take the next step as a coach and perhaps be ready to succeed as a head coach in the future?
The revelation of the pre-season so far has been the play of Rocky McIntosh. He’s been all over the field, making tackles behind the line of scrimmage, knocking down passes, basically looking like a guy who’s ready to become an above average NFL linebacker. Yet last year, until a late season injury, he couldn’t see the field and was stuck behind the immortal Warrick Holdman.
Sean Taylor had more hype attached to him than any safety drafted in years. He was a play maker on a defense that while effective, lacked the big-play ability that Taylor could bring to the table. But come week 1 in the 2004 season, Taylor sat on the bench behind Andre Lott and Matt Bowen. Lott and Bowen are such impact players that they combined for a whopping 4 tackles last year (2 each) while Taylor clocked in at 114 tackles.
Until last year Gregg Williams has always been a successful defensive coach. His ego raged out of control last year and it led to the collapse of a very successful Redskins defense. The 31st ranking didn’t sit well with Williams, but if it allows him to get over himself and be willing to bend a bit, it might end up being the best thing that’s ever happened to him.
NOTE: Carlos Rogers also didn’t start in his rookie year, but because he was behind Shawn Springs and Fred Smoot, it didn’t really warrent a mention.
8 Comments
August 22nd, 2007 at 11:53 am
How much of this change is because of the Head Coach Joe Gibbs ability to manage high ego individuals like Gregg Williams, Tony Stewart,…etc.
August 22nd, 2007 at 12:02 pm
Anyt coach that bears the brunt for a 5-11 disappointing season should learn from that mistake, and I’m glad to see Williams indicate just that. The fact of the matter is that he’s a brilliant defensive mind. Getting that out of him might be more of a task than necessary, but 2007 will tell us if that’s the case.
August 22nd, 2007 at 1:00 pm
Well I hope his brilliance comes out. He needs to figure out how to get a pass rusher in there that isn’t a safety or outside linebacker. The defense is too easy to pick a part like that. But I do have to say kudos to having some capable corners. Having Smoot and Springs shut those guys down and get them off routes is invaluable. Did anyone see the frustration on some of the Steeler receivers? Oh..and isn’t ST about ready for a HUGE hit now..I mean it is third game pre-season.
I’m out
August 22nd, 2007 at 1:14 pm
I know that this is going to be weird, but I’m seriously looking at who Washington takes in the first round next year; the reason is it will tell us what’s the plan post-Gibbs. If they take a OG, we know nothing. If they take a DE, it’s going to be Williams.
August 23rd, 2007 at 12:24 am
Whoa comments
I thought these were broken there for a while.
TRW03 - Well, I’m not sure. Gibbs was around last year and couldn’t get Williams to get his head out of his ass. But I’m sure he gave some gentle coddling over the off-season.
Skins Patrol - Agreed. Everyone should click on his name to visit his site as well. Good stuff.
Riggo - Unless Andre Carter performs this year, I can’t see many sacks coming from the d-line again this year. Maybe Golston will surprise?
Bill - Not too many guards go in the 1st round these days. I wonder if its not time to take a tackle to replace Jansen and perhaps try him at guard. If they go defense in the 1st round that will be what 5 straight years going that direction - Taylor, Rogers, McIntosh (2nd round but 1st pick), Landry, DE. Perhaps a receiver might work, although hopefully they’ll be picking nice and low in the draft.
August 23rd, 2007 at 9:27 am
Lee, Jansen would need to also swap sides of the line to solve that particular problem at Guard. It’s a possiblity, but I don’t think it’s a strong one. Right now, on paper, there are three four areas of concern: OL, specifically LOG (plus depth), WR (potentially, this is NOT an issue, especially next season if Espy is healthy to be a quality depth WR; Moss, El, and Lloyd should be ok, on paper, and Thrash was decent a few years back, and is shaping up to be a very good 3rd WR right now), DE and DT. Andre Carter, I still feel, can be one of the answers at DE. Golston may be one of the answers at DT. A young DE with good pass rush capability (ala Mann or Manley, but that’s wishing…) would pretty much take the heat off of the LB blitzes…. and we would have a top 5 D year in year out for quite a while (if we could keep our own players). I think our DB situation is handled (as long as Springs stays healthy; call me an optimist), so that’s not an issue.
So it pretty much comes down to the lines…. DE or OG? Yeah, we could probably get a pretty good OG late in the first round (say, 32nd, with our own pick… that would be nice!), but it’s the spot where next year’s pick will show whether or not we’re going to be William’s team in two years….
August 23rd, 2007 at 11:01 am
Things that make you go “Hmmmm…..”
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/nflinsider/2007/08/jets_reportedly_on_verge_of_tr.html
You don’t think this is the Skins looking for that guard, do you?
August 23rd, 2007 at 12:19 pm
[...] this is true, hat tip to commenter Bill for sniffing this out earlier [...]
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