Williams brings experience, change of pace to Saints

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METAIRIE, La. -- Gregg Williams was standing in front of a framed picture of former New Orleans Saints linebacker Sam Mills just around the corner from the team meeting rooms.

Maybe it was the image of the late Mills, a member of the vaunted Saints linebacking corps from the late 1980s and early 1990s known as "The Dome Patrol," spying down over Williams' right shoulder that persuaded the new Saints defensive coordinator to make this statement about New Orleans' current group of defenders: 

"We're not even in that stratosphere here," Williams said. "We're not even close to playing that kind of defense here."

It's more likely Williams came to his assessment by simply watching Saints game tape from last season rather than a whisper from beyond. A negative snap judgment of the Saints' porous defense could be made by a person with a quarter of the Williams' defensive knowledge.

It took a Herculean effort from the Saints' potent offensive attack to earn an 8-8 record last season. Quarterback Drew Brees propelled the Saints atop the league in total offense for the second time in three seasons and fell only 16 yards short of surpassing Dan Marino's single-season passing yards record (5,084) set in 1984. 

The counterproductive Saints defense made all those flashy numbers by the offense awash as the Saints sank to the NFC South cellar in 2008. 

With Gary Gibbs in charge, the Saints defense progressively decreased in production since becoming defensive coordinator in 2006. Last season's performance was the apex of defensive futility under Gibbs. The Saints ranked 27th in points per game allowed (24.6) and 23rd in yards allowed per game (339.5). The Saints couldn't muster a consistent pass rush and was in the bottom half of the league in creating turnovers.

Saints coach Sean Payton is often lumped into the short list of the brightest offensive minds currently coaching in the NFL. So Payton fired his good friend Gibbs and then dug into his own pocket (about $250K of Payton's own salary deep) in the hopes of landing one of those genius-type coaches on the opposite end of the ball.

Payton pinpointed Williams and wasn't ready to accept no for an answer. Payton offered Williams full autonomy of the Saints defense -- personnel, scheme, anything. The courtship didn't last long as Williams was hired in mid-January.

Williams: 'This team has a chance to be really good.' (US Presswire)

"[Payton has] hired someone you don't have to look after," Williams said. "He's hired someone he knows and respects can get the job done, which means he should be able to do better at his own job because he doesn't have to worry about that. Those are things we talked about before I ever came here. I don't want to go to places any more in my coaching career where I'm not in charge. I'm not Big Bird, I'm Wyatt Earp. You want to clean the town up? Hire Wyatt Earp."

Williams cleaned up defenses in previous stops like Houston, Tennessee and Washington, guiding those units into top 10 defenses during his tenure with the Oilers, Titans and Redskins. The 51-year-old guru's most impressive coaching feat came when the 2000 Titans only surrendered 191 points during the regular season, which is the third fewest since the league went to the 16-game schedule.

While you might think cleaning up a defense and starting anew means Williams is installing some never-before-seen, space-aged scheme. Not the case. Just watch tapes of defenses architected by Williams' mentors like Buddy Ryan and Dick LeBeau and it's all there clear as day.

As Saints linebacker Scott Fujita explained, though, there's one catch when it comes to Williams' scheme — it's every scheme Williams ever learned.

"I don't think anyone of us is being asked to do anything different than what we've done in the past under any system any of us have played," Fujita said. "There's only so many coverages you can run in this league. Most of the guys have done everything, but Gregg is asking us to do everything on this one defense.

"One down we might be a Cover 2 team, another down we might be a blitz-type team. We'll play 4-3 and then we'll play 3-4. That's what's going to make this fun and the most player-friendly defenses I may ever play under."

Williams appears from the outside looking in to be polar opposites of Gibbs.

Williams constantly barks with or at his defensive players before, during and after plays. Williams is running up and down the sidelines during practice through the good and the bad. Williams will let you know just how smart he is.

It's the type of nastiness and swagger Williams wants his defense to exude. 

"In college, [Virginia Tech coach] Frank Beamer always had a saying 'reckless intelligence.' If you can believe that, that's exactly what Gregg Williams is," said Saints safety Pierson Prioleau, who signed with the Saints this offseason after playing for Williams in Buffalo, Washington and Jacksonville. "He wants people to play with a reckless attitude and be intelligent. It's kind of a fine line between, but that's what Gregg wants and expects."

What Williams throws at Brees and the rest of the offense during practices has made for interesting theater. Practices have been more lively with Williams swapping schemes, personnel and blitz packages with the hopes of one-upping Payton and Brees. The added aggression from the defense induced a couple of unit vs. unit brawls bordering on dangerous.

Then there was a play in the Saints' preseason opener last week against the Bengals that Williams viewed as so profound he called it a "culture-change-of-attitude moment."

Bengals wideout Chad Ochocinco caught a 5-yard hitch route, shook off the tackle attempt by Saints cornerback Jason David and took off down the sideline. Of the two least likely players to track down Ochocinco, in flies defensive end Charles Grant to push Ochocinco out of bounds 50 yards later with fellow end Anthony Hargrove going stride for stride with Grant.

At that point, Williams told himself, "They get it."

"How we're going to get them to play better is to play hard," Williams said. "That's what we're promising. We're promising to play hard. I can't affect very much what mom and dad gave them in the gene pool. The coaches don't change that. Mom and dad need the blame more than blaming the coaches. But playing hard and hopefully trying to play smart, that's what we're trying to help them to do -- to play a little bit smarter, play a little bit harder, and these guys have bought into that pretty good."

With so many losing seasons in the Saints' history, the fan base for the team with the biblical name is constantly searching for the franchise-saving piece for a region longing for a Super Bowl title.

Williams doesn't want to be mistaken for the second coming. At all.

"I'm not the savior," Williams said.

He might not have to be for the Saints to contend in the NFC.

In 2006, the Saints ranked 12th in total defense with a unit not bearing as much talent as the current roster. A better-than-average defense teamed with a top-ranked offense to produce the best season in Saints history that included a first-time berth in the NFC Championship Game.

The Saints were close then. Williams was close in Tennessee.

Williams didn't come to New Orleans to be close.

"This team has a chance to be really good," Williams said. "You have to be real special at the quarterback position, and we are. You've got to be special on the offense and to win games and score points in the playoffs, and we are.

"And now we've got to do our part defensively to help us along the way."