Defense: Gregg Williams or Personnel? (1 Viewer)

drjayhow

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I am tickled about our D so far this year. If you had to put a percentage to it, how much is due to scheme/attitude vs new players? 80% Williams? 20% players (Sharper,Greer, Hargrove, whoever)? Vice versa? Who is responsible for this (so far) super turn around?


I don't really care either way, long as we keep smashing them. Just wondered what the general consensus is.
 
I think it's 50/50 in that GW is allowing these guys to make plays. Did you guys catch the commentary during the game about that fact, that GW said he would let the players make plays & that when Sharper was in Minn, that wasn't popular when we would go on his own instincts, yet GW said that is what he wants him to do, I think it's the 50/50, the coach is doing a great job coaching & the players are making plays.
 
close to 50/50. Additions of legitimate pro-bowl caliber veterans and schemes that allow our high draft picks and returning players to make big plays is what led to this. Gregg is an excellent coordinator and leaders like Vilma and Sharper have this team bleieving that they can do it. This team is VERY VERY dangerous.
 
close to 50/50. Additions of legitimate pro-bowl caliber veterans and schemes that allow our high draft picks and returning players to make big plays is what led to this. Gregg is an excellent coordinator and leaders like Vilma and Sharper have this team bleieving that they can do it. This team is VERY VERY dangerous.

You have to hope it's 50/50 or sooner or later you will have a situation where either your coordinator gets outsmarted or your players get exposed.

What Williams is doing is putting guys in the right position to succeed... but the players are executing very well. I think people always talk about Williams' scheme but Buffalo was the only game where he really dialed up some creativity. The biggest change has been the philosophical change of having his players play loose and aggressive. So to me it's 50/50, but it's still too early to tell.
 
Williams. He influenced the personnel decisions and a lot of players came here because of him, so he deserves the bulk of the credit. Not to mention getting rid of Jason David... I know he had a hand in that.
 
its not just the players we brought in, we werent getting much production out of the players we had prior but as GW has proven we have the talent he just has them in a system that better utilizes that talent.. if i had to put it in percentages i'd say 60-40 GW

Williams. He influenced the personnel decisions and a lot of players came here because of him, so he deserves the bulk of the credit. Not to mention getting rid of Jason David... I know he had a hand in that.

partially.. what SP and Drew have established down here went into that equation for most of them also
 
Williams is proving how woefully inadequate Gibbs was as a defensive playcaller. Minus Vilma, Greer, and Sharper, this is the same personnel.
 
You have to hope it's 50/50 or sooner or later you will have a situation where either your coordinator gets outsmarted or your players get exposed.

What Williams is doing is putting guys in the right position to succeed... but the players are executing very well. I think people always talk about Williams' scheme but Buffalo was the only game where he really dialed up some creativity. The biggest change has been the philosophical change of having his players play loose and aggressive. So to me it's 50/50, but it's still too early to tell.

I disagree every so slightly. I agree with your point about hoping it's 50/50 because the coach gets outsmarted or players get exposed eventually. But I'd lean towards giving GW 60 percent or so of the credit. The reason is that while the players are definitely playing better, GW and his staff, IMHO, have coached them up better leading up to the game than past defensive staffs. So during the course of the game, I'd agree with 50/50, but I think GW deserves a little more because players are performing better as a result of his staff's coaching during the week.

I hope that made sense, LOL.
 
I'm going with a slight lean to GW.

Though additions like sharper and greer have been huge
 
Ahhh, Nature vs Nurture.


Well, I don't care how smart it is, a Daschund will never be an outside linebacker, a tortoise will never beat an Olypmic sprinter's time, and goldfish will never type 60 words a minute because of physical limitations imposed by nature, on the other hand some random guy off of the street isn't going to just know calculus without ever having done any math, a 2 yr old kid marooned on an island won't know Americal History without schooling at some point and person who's never left an Amish settlement won't know how to operate a laptop and surf the web, limitations imposed by lack of nuturing.

This thing we have happening on defense is combo plate. Gregg Williams is nurturing this defense to be better with better "genetic material" than this team had last year.
 
I disagree every so slightly. I agree with your point about hoping it's 50/50 because the coach gets outsmarted or players get exposed eventually. But I'd lean towards giving GW 60 percent or so of the credit. The reason is that while the players are definitely playing better, GW and his staff, IMHO, have coached them up better leading up to the game than past defensive staffs. So during the course of the game, I'd agree with 50/50, but I think GW deserves a little more because players are performing better as a result of his staff's coaching during the week.

I hope that made sense, LOL.

I see what you're saying and it goes back to my point about the philosophical improvement (I don't think it's that these guys who have been playing football for their entire lives have suddenly transformed their fundamentals... and I think the idea "exotic" schemes being employed by Williams was overhyped). But it's hard to put a percentage on who is more responsible for any kind of transformation. Williams may have sparked it, but really it's up to the players to succeed.

I honestly don't think it's much of a variable. If a team is succeeding, it's usually 50/50 coaches players, because the coaches have to trust their players and the players have to buy into the coaches' philosophy. If either is compensating for the other, it's going to be exposed eventually.

I think Williams deserves all the credit at generating a spark and knowing the right formula for these guys to succeed. But I'm not going to give him the majority of the credit at the expense of guys like Vilma, Ellis, Shanle, Greer, Sharper... and really the entire defense. And vise versa (not going to take anything away from Williams). I think what we have is a DC who gameplans well, adjusts well, is very clear in expressing what he expects out of his players as well as what his objectives are in game situations. And working hand-in-hand with that you have a defensive group that--early on--appears to have great leadership, be very cerebral, athletic/fast, and has a markedly different attitude than it had last season.

So to be more concise, I think the biggest improvement hasn't been free agents, draft picks, or a new DC. I think it's been the attitude of this defense... and to me that's equal parts Williams/players.
 
:potd:
Ahhh, Nature vs Nurture.


Well, I don't care how smart it is, a Daschund will never be an outside linebacker, a tortoise will never beat an Olypmic sprinter's time, and goldfish will never type 60 words a minute because of physical limitations imposed by nature, on the other hand some random guy off of the street isn't going to just know calculus without ever having done any math, a 2 yr old kid marooned on an island won't know Americal History without schooling at some point and person who's never left an Amish settlement won't know how to operate a laptop and surf the web, limitations imposed by lack of nuturing.

This thing we have happening on defense is combo plate. Gregg Williams is nurturing this defense to be better with better "genetic material" than this team had last year.

:aduncan:
 

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