Greg Williams

[A1]

I've heard a lot of talk about GW and how he has relaxed his ways. Don't buy into it for a second. This team needed to be locked up in a room together for six months last year. Making them work together was an excellent choice. Now they pulled the trigger and and got a high powered offense. It's going to take a high powered offense to win extra-conference games in this league. Let's step through the process: win at home, win in the division, win on the road, win conference games, beat everyone. In order to go for the gold we need to beat everyone. It looks like GW is doing a good job of getting this team together and putting them in a position to win.

[A1]

And the media has a good story with GW because he was a hard ass and now is [perhaps] sitting pretty.

[John Doe]

Great post Greg - now get back to the sideline!

[Shiny Chicken]

somehow, I don't think Gregg would misspell his own name, John ;-)

[Romes]

or post during the game... :D

[Shiny Chicken]

hehe... well you never know, he could have a laptop on the sidelines there somewhere

[Shiny Chicken]

seriously though, I always wonder who of note might be posting here

[Shiny Chicken]

well I suppose we haven't been around long enough for anyone to find us yet... but the old site admins used to say that we had some high profile visitors once in awhile... I've always wondered oif that was true and if it was, who might have stopped by....

[Typ0]

It's all good!

[Typ0]

Why are you guys giving A1 a hard time? This is going to be a media angle throughout the season especially if the Bills are effective. He's just pointing out the circumstances are different and call for a different strategy.

[WG]

All I know is that one of the primary things that coaches, GMs, and professional football analysts tell you that you need to win is a rushing defense. We didn't do a thing, not one lousy thing, to boost that. In my book, it was the #2 priority right behind finding 3 or 4 offensive linemen who can play, yet we didn't even approach it as a need area.

Traditionally, teams who can run and stop the run are those that are successful. Last year our rush D blew and it appears that we've done nothing significant to upgrade.

Also last year, our rushing offense left quite a bit to be desired w/ only 4 games w/ our leading rusher over 100 yards. Those were against the 31st/last rush D, 28th (twice), and the 21st rush D.

In 11 of 16 games our leading rusher did not achieve 70 yards rushing. In 7 of those games, we didn't have one achieve even 60. Much less in several games. We've done nothing to upgrade our rushing offense. We didn't sign any OL-men who are specialists at opening holes.

We may have made some moves to sell tickets. But I'm not buying into the hype yet. IMO if we lose the Jets game, we're gonna be in for another long season. If we happen to lose to Minnesota, it'll be disasterous. I think we did a lot to sell tix, but nothing to improve our rushing O or D. Those are pivotal, a lot more pivotal than having a QB sling for 4,000 yards, for winning.

We'll be in good stead however if we can win those two games and start off 2-0.

[Typ0]

wys:

no one is saying all the pieces are in place just that we are starting to be able to see the picture on the puzzle without looking at the box. Myself, I'm not worried about the running game at all and I fully understand how unproven TH is. If TH can't run the ball Morris can I am confident in that. Our OLine is a lot better and after we finally abandoned the WCO we are going to look a lot more like a WCO. Meaning we are going to be doing a lot with different types of passes to help set up the offense. We are going to be able to run the ball, I'm not nearly as worried about it as you.

On the other hand, it is likely going to be our inexperienced defense that will cost us some wins. Oh well, you can't have everything all at once when your cap situation has been mismanaged in the near past. We'll have it all...but the only way we are going to have it right now is if a lot of people really step up to the plate and the team works like a team. If Ted Washington was still on this team we would look more like SB contenders instead of a team with a glaring weakness begging to be exploited.

[WG]

I have the least amount of faith in Morris of all of our RBs. I wouldn't mind a bit if they cut him.

I don't think it was good to sign Price and Teague either. Much better players for less were available. Also, we had a crack at several very moderately priced DTs that we didn't even bring in for a look. It could have been done. We just didn't do it.

[HenryRules]

Wys, I completely agree about Morris. I don't mind him being here because he is a good guy on special teams, but if he's ever carrying the ball for an extended amount of time, we're in seriuos trouble. Right now, I also agree about Teague, if he was going to play centre, I would have rather taken a run at some of the other centres that were available and better IMO. As an LT, I didn't mind the signing of Teague, because I didn't think there were any great LT's out there, but if he's not playing there, his contract is too rich.

[Typ0]

The only times Morris has been called upon he has delivered.

[HenryRules]

Typ0, the same could have been said about Jonathon Linton.

[John Doe]

As posted by Wys: "We've done nothing to upgrade our rushing offense. We didn't sign any OL-men who are specialists at opening holes."

???!!!

Since when is a lineman a "specialist" in run blocking or pass blocking. Certainly there are relative strengths and weaknesses in this regard, but SPECIALISTS?

Although he is no specialist, I would posit that Mike Williams is a pretty good run blocker and will become a force in that area. Trey Teague's relative strength is supposed to be run blocking as well. There may well have been better free agents than Teague and Price, but I am not ready to pass judgement on these two just yet.

Drafting Justin Bannan and Ryan Denney may not pay instant dividends or as far as run support, but they may bring some depth as they gain experience. Whether they prove to be "significant" remains to be seen. Bannan was touted as someone with a reputation as being pretty good against the run.

[HenryRules]

Personally, I think signing Eddie Robinson, London Fletcher, and Billy Jenkins were moves that all improved our run defense. Maybe not as much as a stud DT would, but to say they did nothing is exagerrating incredibly. Also, our rookie DLs will have had the offseason to improve physically as well as mentally so I expect them to be better than last season - again another improvement.
As far as the rushing offense, Dave Moore at TE is a big blocking upgrade of JR. Since TT is beating out Conaty for the job, I think that's an upgrade at centre. JJ will be a better run blocker (as well as pass blocker) than Fina ever was and Mike Williams will be a better run blocker than Jennings was as a rookie. That's an upgrade at 3 of the OL positions (LT, C, RT) and the TE. When you consider there's normally a max of 7 blockers (5 OL, TE, and FB) they upgraded at more than half the run-blocking positions including 3 of the most essential. I'm sorry that Will Shields, Jonathon Ogden, and Kevin Mawae were not brought in, but we did still upgrade our rushing offense.

[TigerJ]

We all know Wys makes wing sauce. I want to know if A1 makes steak sauce. As far as Gregg Williams is concerned, Ithink that he has changed his preseason regimen to some extent. That's not really open to debate. I would be willing to bet that any changes are a conscious calculation. Some changes may have happenned because he looked back at las year and decided he misshandled some things. Other changes might be because the team situation is different. He's know longer a rookie coach. He knows his veteran players and his veteran players know him. The defensive vets know the system. He has an offensive coordinator that he can trust to handle that part of the game.

I see Gregg Williams as a very calculating man who does everything for a reason whether right or wrong.

[colin]

Originally posted by HenryRules
Personally, I think signing Eddie Robinson, London Fletcher, and Billy Jenkins were moves that all improved our run defense. Maybe not as much as a stud DT would, but to say they did nothing is exagerrating incredibly. Also, our rookie DLs will have had the offseason to improve physically as well as mentally so I expect them to be better than last season - again another improvement.
As far as the rushing offense, Dave Moore at TE is a big blocking upgrade of JR. Since TT is beating out Conaty for the job, I think that's an upgrade at centre. JJ will be a better run blocker (as well as pass blocker) than Fina ever was and Mike Williams will be a better run blocker than Jennings was as a rookie. That's an upgrade at 3 of the OL positions (LT, C, RT) and the TE. When you consider there's normally a max of 7 blockers (5 OL, TE, and FB) they upgraded at more than half the run-blocking positions including 3 of the most essential. I'm sorry that Will Shields, Jonathon Ogden, and Kevin Mawae were not brought in, but we did still upgrade our rushing offense.

We actually will have upgraded on 4 positions. If Sully wins out RG, he is an upgrade (otherwise he would not win), if he does not Os is an upgrade over Carmen, or whoever was there to start.

[TacklingDummy]

Don't be surprised when Kevin Gilbride is the coach next year.

[WG]

Sorry there JD. Perhaps I should have chosen my words a tad bit more carefully. :D

Let's just say that Teague wasn't known for blowing guys off the line to open up huge gaps! BTW, anyone know what he was known for? He only started one season.

As to Sullivan, Williams, and the rest, MW is a rookie and won't be 100% from week 1. That's why we need the vets to be. Sullivan, while I thought we got a real bargain last year in the 5th, he still has plenty to learn from what I've seen/heard.

Robinson, he was brought in primarily due to his cover skills. Not his run support. Again, at this point, it appears that we'll be lucky to have 4 guys who can play DL w/ depth being an unlikely luxury. Denny, Bannon, I wouldn't count on them contributing immensely before week 6 or 8 and that's if in fact they're better than billed. Otherwise they won't be factors this season.

We're in trouble rush-D wise. No doubt about it at this point. I see little chance that we're gonna field a DL on opening day that's gonna have even a chance of holding Martin to under 100 yards.

[The_Philster]

Originally posted by TacklingDummy
Don't be surprised when Kevin Gilbride is the coach next year.

Bite your tongue.