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Williams thinks Rams' defense has chance to be special
• By Jim Thomas
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/foot...cle_6f1351e2-4df0-53a1-ac64-b2b15e3cc1c2.html
When Rams defensive players returned for the start of the offseason conditioning program in late April, each received an individual tape — an individual report if you will — showing strengths and weaknesses in his play.
“It’s one thing for a coach to talk to all the defense,” coordinator Gregg Williams said. “It’s one thing for a coach to talk just to his position area. But the (position) coaches went the extra mile.”
And produced individual tapes, self-scouting their own players.
“The guys took it to heart and really had a very good spring in the weight room, in the training room and then here on the field,” Williams said. “It’s light years ahead of where we were last year (at this time) because they didn’t know me, I didn’t know them.
“Just from a terminology (standpoint), are we speaking the same language? Do we understand what we really want? It took a little bit of time for all of us to get acclimated last year.”
But now a foundation has been laid. There has been a base of information established for a defense that was among the league’s best over the second half of last season. If nothing else, Williams hopes the familiarity helps the Rams avoid the slow starts defensively that have plagued the team for several seasons under coach Jeff Fisher, predating Williams’ arrival a year ago.
To say that Williams raised the subject of slow starts during the spring would be understatement.
“Why don’t you ask these young gentlemen who play if I have worn them out about that,” Williams said. “Yes, we’ve discussed it.”
Linebacker Jo-Lonn Dunbar, whose association with Williams dates to time they spent together in New Orleans, can vouch for that.
“We’ve stressed that 10-fold,” Dunbar said. “Gregg mentions it every day. That’s the first thing he says to us every day. ... ‘Start fast. Start fast. Start fast.’ So what we need to do is start fast as a defense and start fast as a team.”
The pieces certainly are in place for that to take place this year. Returning from last season are seven of the team’s top nine defensive linemen, the top four linebackers and all 11 of the top defensive backs.
Fortifying that group are the free-agent additions of defensive tackle Nick Fairley, a first-round pick by Detroit, and outside linebacker Akeem Ayers, who won a Super Bowl last season with the New England Patriots.
“He has really fit in quite well here,” Williams said of Fairley. “The thing that’s been really fun for me to watch is the big eyes he had when he came in and saw the talent in that room. He saw, and all of a sudden, ‘Whoa! I’m going to have to compete for any time to get on the field with these guys.’ It’s gonna be fun packaging all those guys up.”
As for Ayers, Williams has some familiarity from the year (2013) they spent together in Tennessee.
“We’ve got to try to adapt some things to his skill set,” Williams said. “Hide the things that he doesn’t do real well but maximize the things that he does do well. And he does some really good things.”
Overall, Williams has tried to eliminate clutter from the defensive playbook — plays and schemes that for whatever reason didn’t fit or didn’t work. But he’s also added a few tricks. Williams said he has 42 packages of personnel alignments and groupings in his playbook — the defense worked on 18 of them this spring.
Familiarity with his staff after a year together has allowed Williams to give them more responsibility on the practice field. Williams isn’t as omnipresent, although it still is hard to miss him.
“The assistants know more about what I want,” Williams said.
Williams has been around the NFL long enough to know what a special defense looks like. He’s had several of them himself over the years at his many stops throughout the league.
Can this be one of them?
“We would hope so,” Williams said. “I would tell you this: I’ve had a chance to be a part of ... many special defenses. I’ve been seven different places and at five of those seven places we’ve been top five or best in the world at what we do. This is a talented group.”
But a couple of things have to happen to make the leap from talented to special. One is communication. Miscommunication in the heat of a game can lead to a busted play.
“One play can beat you one way or the other,” Williams said. “But when they are on the same page and you see these guys talking, yeah, there’s a chance for them to be special.”
Another important factor, Williams says, is the passion the players have for success. As he sees it, succeeding at the highest level has to be more important to the players than it is even to the coaches.
“The good teams I’ve ever been on, and some of the greatest defenses I’ve ever been a part of, it was much more important to them than it was to me,” Williams said.
And it’s very important, obviously, to Williams. So much so that each defensive player was handed a report Thursday at the end of organized team activities, comparing where they are now to where they were at the start of the offseason program — on April 20.
“Where they grew, where they didn’t grow,” Williams said.
And what they need to accomplish on their own before the team reconvenes for the start of training camp at the end of July.
It was Williams’ way of saying: Have a nice summer.
• By Jim Thomas
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/foot...cle_6f1351e2-4df0-53a1-ac64-b2b15e3cc1c2.html
When Rams defensive players returned for the start of the offseason conditioning program in late April, each received an individual tape — an individual report if you will — showing strengths and weaknesses in his play.
“It’s one thing for a coach to talk to all the defense,” coordinator Gregg Williams said. “It’s one thing for a coach to talk just to his position area. But the (position) coaches went the extra mile.”
And produced individual tapes, self-scouting their own players.
“The guys took it to heart and really had a very good spring in the weight room, in the training room and then here on the field,” Williams said. “It’s light years ahead of where we were last year (at this time) because they didn’t know me, I didn’t know them.
“Just from a terminology (standpoint), are we speaking the same language? Do we understand what we really want? It took a little bit of time for all of us to get acclimated last year.”
But now a foundation has been laid. There has been a base of information established for a defense that was among the league’s best over the second half of last season. If nothing else, Williams hopes the familiarity helps the Rams avoid the slow starts defensively that have plagued the team for several seasons under coach Jeff Fisher, predating Williams’ arrival a year ago.
To say that Williams raised the subject of slow starts during the spring would be understatement.
“Why don’t you ask these young gentlemen who play if I have worn them out about that,” Williams said. “Yes, we’ve discussed it.”
Linebacker Jo-Lonn Dunbar, whose association with Williams dates to time they spent together in New Orleans, can vouch for that.
“We’ve stressed that 10-fold,” Dunbar said. “Gregg mentions it every day. That’s the first thing he says to us every day. ... ‘Start fast. Start fast. Start fast.’ So what we need to do is start fast as a defense and start fast as a team.”
The pieces certainly are in place for that to take place this year. Returning from last season are seven of the team’s top nine defensive linemen, the top four linebackers and all 11 of the top defensive backs.
Fortifying that group are the free-agent additions of defensive tackle Nick Fairley, a first-round pick by Detroit, and outside linebacker Akeem Ayers, who won a Super Bowl last season with the New England Patriots.
“He has really fit in quite well here,” Williams said of Fairley. “The thing that’s been really fun for me to watch is the big eyes he had when he came in and saw the talent in that room. He saw, and all of a sudden, ‘Whoa! I’m going to have to compete for any time to get on the field with these guys.’ It’s gonna be fun packaging all those guys up.”
As for Ayers, Williams has some familiarity from the year (2013) they spent together in Tennessee.
“We’ve got to try to adapt some things to his skill set,” Williams said. “Hide the things that he doesn’t do real well but maximize the things that he does do well. And he does some really good things.”
Overall, Williams has tried to eliminate clutter from the defensive playbook — plays and schemes that for whatever reason didn’t fit or didn’t work. But he’s also added a few tricks. Williams said he has 42 packages of personnel alignments and groupings in his playbook — the defense worked on 18 of them this spring.
Familiarity with his staff after a year together has allowed Williams to give them more responsibility on the practice field. Williams isn’t as omnipresent, although it still is hard to miss him.
“The assistants know more about what I want,” Williams said.
Williams has been around the NFL long enough to know what a special defense looks like. He’s had several of them himself over the years at his many stops throughout the league.
Can this be one of them?
“We would hope so,” Williams said. “I would tell you this: I’ve had a chance to be a part of ... many special defenses. I’ve been seven different places and at five of those seven places we’ve been top five or best in the world at what we do. This is a talented group.”
But a couple of things have to happen to make the leap from talented to special. One is communication. Miscommunication in the heat of a game can lead to a busted play.
“One play can beat you one way or the other,” Williams said. “But when they are on the same page and you see these guys talking, yeah, there’s a chance for them to be special.”
Another important factor, Williams says, is the passion the players have for success. As he sees it, succeeding at the highest level has to be more important to the players than it is even to the coaches.
“The good teams I’ve ever been on, and some of the greatest defenses I’ve ever been a part of, it was much more important to them than it was to me,” Williams said.
And it’s very important, obviously, to Williams. So much so that each defensive player was handed a report Thursday at the end of organized team activities, comparing where they are now to where they were at the start of the offseason program — on April 20.
“Where they grew, where they didn’t grow,” Williams said.
And what they need to accomplish on their own before the team reconvenes for the start of training camp at the end of July.
It was Williams’ way of saying: Have a nice summer.
