DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Browns Hiring Gregg Williams (according to LaCanfora)

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This doesn't translate well in terms of formatting. I'd suggest clicking the link at the bottom for a more visually pleasing read.

The Insider's Guide to a Gregg Williams Defense
By Matt Bowen , NFL National Lead Writer Oct 2, 2013

Motivation, accountability and attitude all play a crucial role in defensive football. It goes deeper than schemes or game plans or matchups.

Take the Tennessee Titans this season. They are a 3-1 football team that has completely changed the way they play on the defensive side of the ball, creating turnovers, sacks and pressure.

This is a nasty defense. A physical defense. Turn on the film and watch it for yourself.

And Gregg Williams has played a major role in this turnaround in his first year back in the NFL after serving a one-year suspension for the bounty program in New Orleans.

The senior assistant/defense for Tennessee has this unit playing with a style that reminds me of the two years I spent with Williams in Washington as a defensive back.

But how can one coach cause such a dramatic change?

Here’s my inside look at Williams, his scheme and the attitude he can bring to a football team.

Accountability Is the Key

Williams had three rules written up on the chalkboard in his defensive team meeting room:

Be on time
Touch all lines
Buckle your chinstrap
That’s it. Be accountable for your actions.

Within five minutes during that first meeting, I knew this was the guy I wanted to play for. He commanded that meeting room, spoke with supreme confidence and let us know right away that things were going to change at Redskins Park in Ashburn, Va.

Hey, Williams can coach. He can motivate. And he absolutely demands accountability from his players. Forget contracts, where you were drafted, etc.

Miss tackles? Bust coverages? Give up plays over the top? Well, then you are probably going to sit. And I’ve been there after giving up the deep one.

That isn’t fun.

But we needed that type of change as a defense after a 5-11 record in 2003 under Steve Spurrier. That season, we lacked structure and discipline. There was a lot of talent on that roster, but there was a disconnect that existed every day in practice settings that could have been mistaken for junior high recess.

Not with Williams. Nope. We were challenged every practice and expected to produce. He ran the defense like a head coach under Hall of Famer Joe Gibbs.

I bought into his style of coaching immediately, and I believe the majority of my defensive teammates did as well.

We were hooked—and it showed with our play on the field.

That defense was smarter, faster, more physical and welcomed the challenges of playing in Williams' scheme.

Williams’ Motivational Skills

It would be irresponsible of me as a writer to sweep the bounty program under the rug. The player-run program existed in Washington, and it was a part of our defensive culture.

I wrote about it back in 2012 at the Chicago Tribune and took some major heat in doing so. But I don’t regret writing it, because inside the text (once you looked past the headline), I hoped to convey the message that Williams is an excellent motivator outside of the bounty talk.

Williams knows how I feel about this based on our conversations since I retired in 2007, and that includes the discussion we had the night I filed my bounty column to the Tribune.

I would have run through a wall for this guy. And I probably still would today if he showed up at my front door.

His ability to get the most out of his players is second to none, and I believe we are seeing that right now in Tennessee. This isn’t a unit stacked with Pro Bowl talent, but they are playing together at a Pro Bowl level.

That’s buying into a certain style of football. It’s an attitude than comes from the top. And it’s a beautiful thing when everyone is on board.

Production Sells

The “production chart” was the first thing you saw on the wall when you walked into our defensive team meeting room.

It listed the name of every defensive player and their stats. How many tackles did they have? Ball disruptions? Forced fumbles? Pressures? Sacks? Interceptions?

It was all there for everyone to see.

Produce and you play. It was that simple under Williams. He didn’t cater to favorites, and he had no problem sitting you down if the production wasn’t there.

Have an issue with the number of minutes you are seeing on Sundays? Then go look at the chart. That will tell you the story.

Because of Mr. Snyder's ability to bring in free agents and the draft, our roster had a tremendous amount of turnover that first offseason under Williams.

We brought in cornerback Shawn Springs, linebacker Marcus Washington, defensive tackle Cornelius Griffin and drafted safety Sean Taylor in the top 10 after trading away Pro Bowler Champ Bailey for Clinton Portis.

We cleaned out the locker room and, well, started over, to an extent. And we needed a defensive coach, a defensive leader to bring it all together.

That was Williams.

You'd Better Have a Notebook

Williams’ scheme is complex. Multiple fronts, coverages, pressures, personnel packages, etc. There was a lot going on there. A defense that went deeper than anything I had experienced as a player.

[img]http://cdn.bleacherreport.net/images_roo....png?1380654443[/img]

Because of that, your notebook was a vital piece of property that went everywhere with you.

His meetings reminded me of college-level courses that combined chalkboard sessions with film work. I still have the notebooks from my time in Washington, and they are filled with concepts, blitzes, coverages and so on.

We covered everything in our game plans. From gadget plays to what to expect on 3rd-and-2 through 3rd-and-6 based on field position, alignment, personnel, wide receiver splits and the depth of the running back. We went into games ready to play versus anything the offense could throw at us.

And that film work was so detailed.

I thought I knew how to study tape, but that wasn’t the case. Under Williams, I really learned the NFL game. Instead of “watching the tape,” I let the film tell me a story.

The meetings were no joke, and we were tested every day when the film started rolling. Williams had no problem putting you on the spot to answer questions, identify concepts or offensive schemes.

Monday Film Review

Williams wouldn’t allow us to relax or think we had arrived as a defense. Even on Mondays after a great defensive performance, he would start our film review sessions by showing cut-ups of the plays we busted on. And he had no problem calling players out.

I liked that. I did. Even when I was the guy being shown up on the screen for taking a poor angle or missing a tackle, I felt this was pro football. We got paid to play a game. And when the play on the field wasn’t up to Coach’s standards, well, then it was time to get corrected.

I remember a game in 2005 when we beat up on the San Francisco 49ers in Frank Gore’s rookie season. Late in the second half, Gore cut back versus Cover 2. My job on that play? Run the alley and make the tackle.

Instead, I took a brutal angle to the ball and created a clear running lane for Gore to get up the field. I looked slow and hesitant on the film trying to recover down the sideline. And it cost us six points.

Williams must have rewound that play at least five times to show how poorly I looked. That was a rough meeting for me, but I didn’t take it personally, nor did I leave the room upset. Heck, I deserved it after what I saw on the film.

And every meeting carried the same tone. We weren’t in there to throw high-fives or hand out trophies.

You were expected to do your job.

“Every Day Is an Interview”

That was Williams’ favorite line.

In Washington, that meant we were evaluated every day in the meeting room, training room, weight room and on the practice field.

With Williams, we would condition before practice. Up-downs, sprints, ladders, etc. Think of a conditioning drill that might make you puke, and I bet we did it.

And they were all filmed.

During training camp, we would watch tape of our entire defense doing up-downs in full gear in the humidity of Virginia. Skip a rep or cheat the drill, and everyone would see it.

Our practices were fast, they were detailed and you were expected to play within the scheme of the defense.

It didn’t matter if it was a Wednesday afternoon practice or Saturday morning walk-through. When the film was rolling, you were being graded on stance, alignment and responsibility.

No free passes with Williams.

Pressure, Pressure, Pressure...

In our first game with Williams, we went after Jon Gruden’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers at FedEx Field.

That game plan was absolutely loaded with pressure schemes, and I blitzed all day against quarterback Brad Johnson.

Williams dialed up pressure in every situation. Attack the edge, the inside A gap, use overload pressure, etc. Whatever it took, we sent the house that day. We even had a blitz named “Chucky” for Coach Gruden where both cornerbacks came off the edge.

Crazy, complex stuff.

Yes, this can be Williams’ downfall when he gets too aggressive in the game plan. That has shown up before when he was coaching in New Orleans. Blitz too much and you can hang your defensive backs out to dry with no help anywhere on the field.

We were a Cover 4 team with Williams in our base looks back in Washington, and the Titans are showing more Cover 2 on the tape.

But at the core of any Williams game plan is pressure. It can be exotic with the disguise, or he will have his guys line up in a blitz look and dare the offense to stop it. If he could, Williams would blitz fans out of the stands.

A great scheme. And one that is fun as hell to play.

What’s Next for Williams and the Titans?

I know Williams isn’t the defensive coordinator in Tennessee. That’s Jerry Gray’s job. But watching the tape and seeing how this defense has come together to play at high level the first four weeks of the season, Williams’ fingerprints are all over this unit.

With quarterback Jake Locker out for an extended period of time after suffering a hip injury, the Titans defense will have to carry this club, continue to force turnovers and create scoring opportunities for backup quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick.

That’s adversity in the NFL. It happens all over the league. Along with Gray, Williams will have this defense ready to embrace that adversity, because defensive football isn’t played in a box. There are so many factors that go beyond talent and scheme when running a productive unit.

And coaching it at the top of the list.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1794097-the-insiders-guide-to-a-gregg-williams-defense

I despised that. I think Pet was just too nice to be honest. I want a man with a warrior mentality training our athletes to have a warrior mentality. Blood thirsty, foaming at the mouth, and in total control of themselves.

How is it you read some of my comments and totally miss the others?

So, are you saying that we should fire Hue, Sashi, and everyone else in the FO? Because their resume from this past year was every bit as bad as Horton's.

Some of you get so upset if anyone dares to question Haslam or the FO and keep saying give them time. Yet, when some of us want continuity throughout the organization, you act like we are stupid.

It's so freaking old...........

And I am not going to debate it. I said my piece.

I am so sick of the "camp cupcake" nonsense.

We had numerous injuries in that training camp, and Pettine was trying to keep people healthy for the regular season.

Less than a week into the 2015 training camp, we had 4 or 5 different RBs injured. We had more players getting hurt with each passing day. Cupcake my butt, it was Pettine trying to make sure we could field a team.

I think we all know Horton was second fiddle and unless he could turn it around he would not last. Not many on here even wanted him back. Not big deal IMO.

I don't remember that clearly but I thought camp cupcake started before the injuries set in.... we always seem to have a higher than average number of preseason or early season injuries (I think it's the preseason injuries like Bryant had last year, and Le'Charles Bentley that stick in my mind).

Whether that's the truth of it or not, I don't know. In my perception Petine also seemed to have a hard time holding players accountable... his down to earth tough guy persona didn't seem to jive with what I saw from him as a coach.

While I agree Hue has made plenty of bad game day coaching decisions and some get rubbed the wrong way with his confidence. . . I do like that Hue seems to be more a 'what you see is what you get' sort of personality. Right down to looking crushed when we were on such a losing skid this year. And while seeing your coach looking defeated might not be great .... I also always saw the players come out and play hard the next week, so looking defeated/dejected didn't equate to an easing of effort on the field.

My recollection is that we had an absurdly high amount of soft-tissue injuries that held people out of training camp the year before. Camp Cupcake was Pettine's adaptation for the next year to field a team Week 1.

What I find amusing is how all the rhetoric before this season was how much better we would be because Hue had the team practicing tackling and how the injuries would be down due to the analytics guys bringing in a brand new strength and conditioning team.

Two more losses, same poor tackling, and a ton of injuries later and two coordinators are gone. LOL......only the Browns.

We lost 4 or 5 RB a week into training camp in 2015. IIRC, Haden, Gilbert, and another CB were also out, along with a variety of other players. I think that they had more butts than bikes, really early on.

What to expect from Gregg Williams' defensive meeting room​

ESPN.com writer and former Williams pupil Matt Bowen outlines what to expect

New Browns defensive coordinator Gregg Williams is widely hailed for his ability to turn around struggling defenses. One his former players says it starts with the kind of culture the longtime coach creates when he walks into a building.

“He’d use this term, he’d used to say autograph your performance every day,” said ESPN.com writer and former NFL safety Matt Bowen, who played two seasons under Williams with the Washington Redskins. “And I’d say, ‘OK what does that mean?’ And he’d say every day is an interview. You're interviewing for a job every single day.”

Bowen, who played for Williams from 2004-05, outlined Monday what Cleveland might be able to expect from the 26-year NFL veteran during an interview with Cleveland Browns Daily. He also wrote about it back in 2013 before Williams reunited with then-Rams coach Jeff Fisher for the past three years.

In their first defensive meeting in Washington, Bowen said Williams wrote three things on a white board: Be on time, touch all lines and buckle your chinstrap. “He said, ‘Those are my three rules and he kind of just moved on,” Bowen said. “Over time you start to figure it out, all those things are about accountability.”

That’s the foundation of a Williams-coached defense on the field.

"It wasn't, you're a first-round pick, you've got to play," Bowen. "No, that didn't fly with Gregg. It was all about accountability.”

Everything was constantly evaluated, too. Here’s what Bowen wrote about that dynamic:

“In Washington, that meant we were evaluated every day in the meeting room, training room, weight room and on the practice field. With Williams, we would condition before practice. Up-downs, sprints, ladders, etc. Think of a conditioning drill that might make you puke, and I bet we did it.

And they were all filmed.

During training camp, we would watch tape of our entire defense doing up-downs in full gear in the humidity of Virginia. Skip a rep or cheat the drill, and everyone would see it.

Our practices were fast, they were detailed and you were expected to play within the scheme of the defense.

It didn’t matter if it was a Wednesday afternoon practice or Saturday morning walk-through. When the film was rolling, you were being graded on stance, alignment and responsibility.

No free passes with Williams.”

Williams, who won a Super Bowl with the Saints in 2010 and spent the past three seasons with the Rams, inherits a young Browns defense that finished 31st in total yards and points per game.

“He is one of the better coordinators in the National Football League, and I think that is proven,” head coach Hue Jackson said Sunday. “The guy has a ton of skins on the wall doing this in a lot of different places with a lot of different players and a lot of different systems. I need growth over there as fast as I can get it. I truly believe in his track record and what he has done … I have to do what I think is right to get us to where we need to be. I think Gregg is that guy.”

Bowen said accountability — whether it’s in meetings or on the practice field — is where it all starts.

“Everything is scripted with Gregg,” he said, “because he’s trying to build that culture of what he wants out of his football players.”

http://www.clevelandbrowns.com/news/article-5/What-to-expect-from-Gregg-Williams-defensive-meeting-room%E2%80%8B/0db914f8-06c1-4b00-b72b-da77896aca93

Okay I'll play, who is the other coordinator? Hue is still here, and as far as I know so is Pep. Your making a mountain out of a molehill. Joe T was talking about constant change in the FO and HC, none of which has happened. Horton did not fit, be thankful we did not waste another year with him, you would be crying next year we wasted a whole year if we kept him. Why put it off? If it don't fit...You must acquit

Nope, Pep left to join Michigan's staff. It was confirmed yesterday by Adam Schefter.

I was wondering the same. I know Pep may be called coordinator, but Hue didn't make his name as a coordinator by playing in the head coaches O and the head coach calling plays.

Wait...........someone "liked" that post? It isn't even accurate. Pep is gone.

What is MOST inaccurate is that you referred to Pep as a Coordinator..which he was NOT.

Not to mention your inference that he was fired...he quit.

Very misleading and deceiving posting.

Good to know. He still wasn't the O coordinator. No big loss.


Answer this....was this Pep Hamiltons O or Hue's O?


When you saw Hue, play after play covering his mouth, with headset on, did you think he was calling plays, or ordering post-game pizza?

Pep left for a reason.

Thanks for letting me/us know he left. I hadn't see anything official.

I think w/out a doubt it was Hue's offense.

And this is just opinion, but I think Pep left because he saw the writing on the wall. He is next in line in the blame game.

Horton this year. Pep about half way through next year. Hue maybe at the end of the year or halfway through the following year.

I am not a huge fan of Pep. Wasn't a huge fan of Horton. Warned folks BEFORE the season.

But damn man............I don't like blaming one person for the failures of others. And I am hesitant to call it a failure because if you say that you didn't expect to win games this year and that it would be a multi-year rebuild, why in the hell start firing coaches when you didn't provide them w/adequate talent?

And that, my friend, is why I have said that is one of the major reasons---along w/dwindling attendance/interest/jersey sales, etc--why I think the plan is doomed to fail.

Fair enough. At this point I am hesitant to call it a failed plan.


It's just the next plan, too early for me to make a call.

I felt the same way...and I'm glad they are gone... they can go fail on another team.






Here's how I look at it... If we do get better talent on the team this season...would you want those two doing the coaching ?

I did not say the plan was already a failed plan. I said the plan was doomed to fail because in part..........a tremendous amount of losses leads to change. And change has been proven over time to not deliver a favorable consequence.

I also believe that poor home attendance, losing young fans to other teams, and declining merchandise sales does not sit well w/ownership.............which also leads to more changes.

Well, "It is a marketing world".

I think nothing illustrates this more than over the last 2 preseasons under both Hue and Pet... they gushed over Tank Carder and his apparent ability to rush the QB... then we never see the guy in on a defensive snap lol

Not hating on Tank. He's probably a cool guy.

http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2017/01/19/how-nfc-afc-championship-teams-built-nfl-playoffs

Heard on the news last night that Williams is expected to be in Cleveland today to allow for interviews with the Press.

Yes. The press conference is set for 12PM and will most likely be aired on the Browns' website.

Over/Under on Bountygate related questions is at 4.

Over/Under on those questions coming from Mary Kay Cabot is at 2.

Any takers?

I'll take the over on bountygate, thanks.

Those questions should be asked. I'd also like to hear them ask him about his relationship w/other coaches. And one more for sure.....please ask him if the loss of talent was the reason his defense nosedived from one season to the next? And if he answers yes, please ask him about the talent that is currently on the Brown's defense in comparison to the one he had in LA.

those are awesome questions.

let's just hope somebody ask at least half of those. i hate cupcake press conferences, even though it's to be expected.

Yeah, outstanding questions... Hope someone has the sack to ask..

I have one more, but I really doubt this will be asked:

How confident are you that you will be given enough time in Cleveland given the organization's propensity to fire coaches on a yearly basis?

It's certainly not worse than the Three Stooges question that was asked a few years ago...LOL

The facial expressions on Gregg and Hue's face alone will make asking that question absolutely worth it.

LOL............not to mention Haslam's.

Nosedived?

I'm not interested in Bountygate - old news that isn't relevant, IMO - but I would like to hear his thoughts on our defence. I highly suspect we will get PC answers, though.

LOL, that'd be funny!

Yeah.

In 2015, the Rams were 13th in scoring defense at 20.6 pts per game.
In 2016, the Rams were 23rd in scoring defense at 24.6 pts per game.

In 2015, the Rams gave up 30+ pts 4 times and 40+ pts 0 times.
In 2016, the Rams gave up 30+ pts 6 times and 40+ pts 3 times, including 3 of their last 6 games.

I think losing talented players had more to do w/the Rams defensive scoring results rather than Williams forgetting how to coach. And I also believe that the Brown's poor defensive showing had more to do w/lack of talent than coaching.

But hey............that's just me.

awesome points about the scoring defense.

but to counter that, remember, the Rams offense is baaaaaaaaddd.

Casey Keenum had two games where he threw 2 picks, and one game where he threw a whopping 4.

that's gotta be tough on a defense.

It is. No doubt about it. I think their O sucked in 2015 though, too. I am not going to look that one up. I hated wasting my time looking up those stats that I just listed. LOL

I knew they didn't play nearly as well this year as last. Bro, the Rams lost a lot of good defensive talent. I don't blame Williams for that. I'm just trying to point out that talent goes a long, long way in how good or bad coaches look.

Me? I'd rather stick w/our coaches and acquire better talent. But, I do realize that is a foreign concept when it comes to the Browns.