So what exactly happened to Darious Williams? Is he, as many have asserted, just playing badly?
I think the scheme may be the issue... and these numbers suggest I may be right.
What the advanced stats show is consistent with what most of us have seen... the CBs are playing way off the line, allowing a high percentage of completions, albeit on shorter passes.
Within this somewhat questionable scheme, the numbers suggest that DWill has not fared all that badly.
For example, in 2020, the average distance of passes thrown at DWill was 14.1 yards. This year, its only 6.8 yards! Though he's allowing a higher percentage of completions (again, not surprisingly), the average yards allowed per target has gone down from 6.7 in 2020 to 5.6 this year. Similarly, the average yards per completion against DWill is down from 12.3 a year ago to 8.4 this year.
Playing off the ball, tackling is key. Well, last year, DWill had a missed tackle rate of 10.2%. This year, its 3.3% (the same as Jalen Ramsey!).
So, what we're seeing is DWill giving up more completions, and a higher percentage, but they are mostly on short passes that are easy to complete against off the ball coverage. He is doing his job of making tackles, and has only given up 1 TD pass this year.
So, I'd assert that the problem is the scheme. I'd like to see DWill being permitted to play more aggressively, as he demonstrated the ability to make plays last year in such a scheme.
The sub-par safety play may impact that approach, but I do think we can mix in more press coverage by a guy like DWill without giving up big plays, and if it means he starts producing takeaways again, that's a good tradeoff.
I think the scheme may be the issue... and these numbers suggest I may be right.
What the advanced stats show is consistent with what most of us have seen... the CBs are playing way off the line, allowing a high percentage of completions, albeit on shorter passes.
Within this somewhat questionable scheme, the numbers suggest that DWill has not fared all that badly.
For example, in 2020, the average distance of passes thrown at DWill was 14.1 yards. This year, its only 6.8 yards! Though he's allowing a higher percentage of completions (again, not surprisingly), the average yards allowed per target has gone down from 6.7 in 2020 to 5.6 this year. Similarly, the average yards per completion against DWill is down from 12.3 a year ago to 8.4 this year.
Playing off the ball, tackling is key. Well, last year, DWill had a missed tackle rate of 10.2%. This year, its 3.3% (the same as Jalen Ramsey!).
So, what we're seeing is DWill giving up more completions, and a higher percentage, but they are mostly on short passes that are easy to complete against off the ball coverage. He is doing his job of making tackles, and has only given up 1 TD pass this year.
So, I'd assert that the problem is the scheme. I'd like to see DWill being permitted to play more aggressively, as he demonstrated the ability to make plays last year in such a scheme.
The sub-par safety play may impact that approach, but I do think we can mix in more press coverage by a guy like DWill without giving up big plays, and if it means he starts producing takeaways again, that's a good tradeoff.
