but aren't wide receivers too big, fast and quick to allow them to catch a football in open space just as much? I would much rather try to stop them from catching the ball in the first place even if I had trash for corners than letting a wide receiver catch it and trying to stop them once they have the ball in their hands. Not to mention, the 1st and 10 turns into 2nd and 5 even IF the corner is able to make that open field tackle.
This is where scheme & personnel need to mesh. Top end guys who can mirror,make plays on the ball etc are still a priority. Im no longer worried so much about finding second tier guys who can mirror or ball skills.its more about being strong at the top of drops,closing on the ball & tackling in space. Eliminate the big play,keep them out of EZ & hope the O makes a mistake OR front 7 makes a play
After reading all this back and forth here's my 2 cents: There are times to be aggressive and times to play more conservatively. That's not a cop out, that's just reality. From my POV, Bowles was way too conservative. In any case you need to have the personnel whatever you're going to do, and the Jets had (still do) holes - pass rusher, CBs, LBs. Hopefully the LB situation has greatly improved. But the other point is that no matter what you do on "D" you're going to be handcuffed by the rules which have favored offense and point scoring for years now. This is why the Jets focus on trying to build this "shut down defense" is maddening. It's never going to happen under the current rules. The best defense is a great offense that can: 1. Chew up clock at will. 2. Score quickly if they fall behind. If your offense can only do one of those two things, then choose #2 because your defense WILL allow the other team to score, especially good teams. I think G. Williams will be able to make the "D" much better because they will be more aggressive, but I also don't think he's going to be Rex-type of blitzing all the time. All that was probably a dime's worth, but keep the change.
The key is the personal and the matchups. Can you win the matchups to create pressure and contain vs how much containment you have to give up to get pressure. Really good defense win 1 on 1 matchups so they can maintain containment. When I think of aggressive D's I think blitzing D's, high risk D's that have to give up containment to get pressure. In today's NFL the rules say if you don't have the matchups make the O make a mistake over a long field. If you have the matchups you get pressure and turnovers by winning them not by committing more assets than needed to get pressure. We have already seen teams that attack the gaps starting to face teams going back to running the ball up the middle with trap blocks. The Rams, Seattle, NE and Baltimore come to mind. That's a nice counter to the nickel and dime packages D's are forced to use to counter the rule changes that favor the passing O. If teams backload with coverage and jump the gaps at the LOS a big running back behind a trap block is at the second level going against safeties and CB's instead of Linebackers. At the end of the day it's personal match ups. Williams has to mix his personal and scheme to the opponent based on what they bring personal wise to the matchups. That's why we needed an edge rusher over a DT unless the DT is going to win matchups without overcommitting to jumping the gaps. That's why we need a CB who can take out the best WR on the other team 1 on 1 about half the time. Williams is going to have to mix it up based on the opponent. What matchups do we win one on one and what matchups do we lose and have to cover up. Risk has to be managed against reward based on the opponent. Containment is about discipline it's not the same as prevent which is about managing the clock against the end zone based on score and time.
Interesting article on SNY The Jets Blog today. It's fairly long, but a good read imo. https://www.sny.tv/jets/news/player...on-in-this-league-speaks-for-itself/310451734 Players, coaches give inside look at what DC Gregg Williams brings to Jets: 'His production in this league speaks for itself' Williams is at the forefront of Adam Gase's culture change in New York By Ralph Vacchiano | Sep 1 | 10:15AM FLORHAM PARK, N.J. -- The first time Gregg Williams stood in front of the Jets' defense after a practice, some of his players were shell-shocked. He was loud. He was harsh. He was brutally honest. He didn't care if any of his players were embarrassed or hurt. In fact, that was the point. And nobody was spared. "I think it's great, the fact that sensitivity is out the window," said Jets coach Adam Gase. "He's not afraid to say anything to anyone. I think guys are hardened to it, and that's a good thing. We all get criticized in this business, we all get picked apart, and you have to have thick skin. And by doing that at least it's holding guys accountable. There are no sacred cows." "He says what guys need to hear," added linebacker Jordan Jenkins. "He's not going to sugarcoat it. He's not going to baby you. He's not going to belittle you. He's going to treat you like a man, and you have to respond like a man. And that's it." Well, that's not all of it when it comes to the 61-year-old Williams, the most important and perhaps riskiest addition to Gase's first Jets staff. He may be one of the most brilliant defensive minds in the NFL, but he's a controversial man, an intense personality, and most definitely an acquired taste. He became infamous for the BountyGate scandal in New Orleans, when the NFL suspended him for allegedly running a "bounty" program that paid his players for, among other things, injuring opponents. But his current players don't need financial incentives to get his direct message. He wants them to play hard, play fast, and do whatever it takes -- even in practice. Everything is a competition. Every day, every moment, needs to be won. And if not ... well, be prepared to hear about it, loudly. If a player doesn't like it? Too bad. No matter who he is. "Gregg's not shy about saying anything to anyone," Gase said. "If something occurs on the field that he wants to make the correction, he's not afraid to tell him." "It's been that way for my whole life -- I say what I mean, and I mean what I say," Williams said. "You can't BS players. You can't BS that. It has to be an everyday thing. And the thing that is easily convinced when you go to a new place is find the best guy there and make him do it. Then everybody else says, 'Uh oh.' "Yep. 'Uh oh.' Mom and Dad didn't make you do that stuff. Mom and Dad couldn't play either." Hiring Williams on Jan. 16 was a gutsy move for Gase. There isn't a higher-profile assistant coach in the entire league. Adding to that juice, Williams has a clear desire to be a head coach again -- a position he hasn't held since 2003 in Buffalo. He was the interim head coach in Cleveland last season when Hue Jackson was fired, but he was passed over for the permanent job when Freddie Kitchenswas hired instead. That's an imposing figure to have over a new head coach's shoulder, but Gase knew the risk had a huge reward. Gase is an offensive coach, convinced he can transform the Jets into a high-scoring juggernaut. But he needed someone who could match his expertise from the other side. There's no doubt, that's exactly what Williams does. "I told him the first day I met him, 'You're a pain in the ass to game-plan for,'" said Jets offensive line coach Frank Pollack. "So it's nice to have you in the same meeting room.' He's a good coach." "God, I hate that guy," added new Jets center Ryan Kalil. "I hate Gregg Williams. He's one of those coaches though. Guys on his team love him. But God, I hate playing against Gregg Williams." Unfortunately for Kalil and Pollack, they do still have to face Williams -- in practice. And since he arrived, the competition at Jets practices has taken on a game-like intensity. The practices are controlled, of course, just not nearly as much as they used to be. Gase and Williams try to out-scheme each other. Players and coaches keep track of who wins and loses each day. They prepare like it's a game day. There's more trash-talking, more celebrating, and even the hits seem a little harder to some. It's a battle between Gase's offense vs. Williams' defense on the field every day. In the meeting rooms, too. "It's like the best thing I've ever been a part of, literally," said Jets running back Le'Veon Bell. "I've literally never had anything like it. Coach Williams is a defensive genius, vs. an offensive genius (in Gase). Both of those guys go at it each and every day. It's like, 'The offense won today, the defense will win tomorrow.' Gase is like, 'OK, they want to do this, then I'm going to put this in tomorrow.'" "That's the way you get ready for the game," said outside linebackers coach Joe Vitt, who coached with Williams in New Orleans (and drew his own six-game suspension in 2012 for his part in the BountyGate scandal). "You have to practice hard and smart with the proper intent. You can't make the same mistakes again." That's definitely Williams' coaching style. Some coaches spend practices with their heads buried in a play card, huddling with other coaches, calmly speaking instructions into a headset. Williams paces the sidelines, barking instructions at players. He makes sure they're alert. He'll rip into them if they're not. His intensity is never turned off. "When we have to worry about the intensity of the players, we have the wrong players," Williams said. "When we have to worry about the competition and the lack of competition in practice or games, we have the wrong people -- coaches and players." So far, Williams believes the Jets have the right kind of people around him. "There has been a smile on my face since I've walked in here," he said. "These young men want to compete. Whether it's an argument, whether they're playing chess or checkers in the room, where they're (doing) anything, they want to compete. And they just want to know that I'm there to pull them back if they go too far. That's what I'm supposed to be doing. "If they won't do that, we've got the wrong people. You can't win at this level without that kind of competition." Competition is great, but it's really attitude and accountability that fuels Williams' approach. That's what caught the attention of his players. And that was his message the first time he met them. "His first three days, all he did was talk about the culture of the defense," said linebacker C.J. Mosley. "How we were going to come on the field, how we were going to play, how we were going to run to the ball. He didn't say anything about the schemes or things like that." And the "culture" he's trying to build, the attitude he wants every day, is simple, Mosley said. "We want to come after the offense and not let them dictate what we do," Mosley said. "We're trying to throw the first punch." That most definitely describes' Williams' approach -- every day, to even the smallest detail. He'll hit first, he'll hit hard, and he won't let up. "He basically kills a gnat with a sledgehammer," linebackers coach Frank Bush said. "That's his mentality." "It permeates," Bush added. "Because it's every day with him. It's an attitude. It's a way we go about things. And it spreads throughout the rest of the team. Because they start to see when you're that way and you try to be organized and try to do things at a high level every day, it makes a difference." Williams doesn't change his approach with his better players, either. He's always looking for ways to spark them, to give them an edge. And he can be harsh with them, too. When he first met Jamal Adams, the Jets' fiery defensive leader, he told him, "I've coached a lot better people than you before." Harsh? Yes. But Adams loved it. "He's coaching us hard and he wants the best out of us," Adams said. "And you can run through a wall for a coach like that, you know what I mean?"
That approach, though, is not for every player. The accountability part of Williams' approach can be jarring. He has no problem calling out anyone, no matter their status, in front of the rest of the team. He has no issues with embarrassing a player, or forcing them to explain their mistake -- or transgression -- in front of their peers. "It's probably something they never experienced," said Jets defensive line coach Andre Carter, who played for Williams in Washington in 2006-07. "It can be a little sensitive. But us as coaches, once we get into our position rooms, we just tell them, 'Look, what is he trying to say? What's the message?' There's content and context. You've got to be smart about 'What is the message' when Gregg is trying to talk to you as an individual and what Gregg is trying to say to the team." In other words, as Jenkins said: "Don't listen to how he conveys the message. Listen to the message itself." "He's very hard, very demanding, a yeller," Carter added. "But it's more about what he's trying to say. It's not just words. It's not just fluff. It's all positive. It's energetic, but it's definitely positive. He wants to bring the best out of every individual." But Williams doesn't just do that by standing in front of a room and yelling. His communication skill does appear to go both ways. One defensive player marveled at how willing Williams was to listen to ideas from his players. They are free to offer their opinions, and often Williams gives their suggestions a try. "I've never had a coach do that before," the player said. "Gregg is intense, he's loud and he's an aggressive guy," Jenkins said. "But if you respect Gregg, he respects you." "He holds people accountable," Vitt added. "But once you've earned his trust, he will listen to you." That "trust" is big for Williams. He didn't show up at 1 Jets Drive with that sledgehammer, looking for a gnat to kill. He knew he couldn't just scream at his players that his way worked and expect them to instantly match his intensity. They had to learn to trust that he was telling the truth, that his approach would work. He needed them to become believers. "That's another thing about the respect that you gain from players," Williams said. "They see not only do they earn the trust of each other, but I have to earn the trust of them too. They understand that I've been around for a little while and can do a lot of different things and I've seen a lot of different things." The regular season will tell the real story of how this experiment works, but for now it seems like players on both sides of the ball have become believers in those "things." The players on defense, after too many years of underachieving, believe they'll thrive under Williams' direct approach. And that's rubbed off on the offensive players, who seem to have loved the competition and intensity during camp. The result has been an entirely new attitude in the Jets' building. Some of that was expected when they hired Gase as their new head coach. But there's no doubt that the addition of Williams turned everything up a notch. "You know his personality. We all know his personality," Vitt said. "His record speaks for itself. His production in this league speaks for itself." "The level of demand from his players as well as his coaching staff is high," Carter said. "There's a whole other level of competition in our meeting rooms and just in general day to day on the field. When you want to become a great defense, that's what you need."
After reading that I’m surprised Polite made it as far as he did. Definitely gets you amped for the defense, which it seems like many feel will be the weak link this season.
This alone will be a significant improvement over Bowles/Rodgers. The lack of accountability that permeated that regime was infuriating. I'm looking forward to seeing a much more aggressive and disciplined team this year.
Lol it seems that every coach that's been hired here talks about "changing the culture". I'm confident I could find a article about Todd Bowels "changing the culture" here if I felt like trying. Win games. Win more games than you lose. Make the playoffs. Win a division title, a conference title, a Super Bowl. That's what it's about. Do that and you'll get to stick around. Maybe. This is a tough town. Don't and you'll be outta here just like the guys you just replaced. Changing the culture HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
I agree with this sentiment 100% This I will say about our current front office/coaching staff--a lot of quality experience: Just a quick glance Douglas: Worked under Ozzie, Pace, Roseman, 3 SB's Savage: Superbowl with Ravens, GM experience Gase: 20 years experience, under slid coaches like Saban, Martz, Mariucci, Marinelli, Nolan, Fox Williams: 35 years experience, head coach, super bowl win, tons of connections Joe Vitt: 40 years experience, super bowl win, Pollack: respected Oline coach, 15+ years expirnce Wilson: respected secondary coach around the league I'm a 20 year fan. In our history--I would go on a limb and challenge anyone to find a more qualified group of leaders on the team than we have right now. More collective experience, all have them have been around winning cultures and all of them highly respected. As I stated--couldn't agree more that winning is what counts and "on paper" means nothing. However,for the first time in a long time it's hard not to be extremely impressed with the leaders that have been put in place to try to right this ship. JET UP
I couldn't agree more... I been a fan for 52... IMHO, I can count on one hand the competent coaching and FO combinations. I am please with I perceive as a good team that cares about the product they put on the field. I believe they will be better and more competitive, will they be a PO team...I doubt it because of some personnel short comings.. but who knows. AS long as they play smart, physical football that is competitive and makes progress week in and week out, I'll e happy. Of course I want them to win but I want a winning culture and the rest will come.
So you're saying that winning games is the key to not losing. Why didn't I think of that? Somebody better tell Gase ASAP.
And somehow Parcells changed the culture completely around without winning anything Dont have an idea why you would laugh at the idea the FO would like to change the culture around here. I have bet thats even more of a lock for you. That every single HC who has been hired not only here, everywhere, every team, says their goal is to win., Just win baby. Is that funny too?
Yes. Some things don't need to be said. As the saying goes everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. Bowles had a plan to change the Jets culture, same as Rex before him and Mangini and Herm where are they now? I like Gase & Williams I really do. Going into year 1 they just might be the Jets most accomplished HC/DC duo since Parcells-Belichick. Williams is one of the top DC of the past 20 years and who can forget Gases's 2013 Denver offense? BUT they have to go out there and DO IT. If these guys wanna stick around they have to win ballgames lotsa lotsa lotsa lotsa lotsa lotsa lotsa ballgames. A division title. A conference title. Make a Super Bowl. Win a Super Bowl. They're not gonna stick around here because of some cockamamie culture change. Win ballgames. Period.
Things sound good based on the fluff pieces coming out. I’d rather have happy fluff pieces then the awful stuff that was coming out of Lions camp last season. It was bad and so were they. They might not get the result you want in year one, but given time these guys may be able to right the ship. They deserve at least half as long as Toilet Bowles got.
