Q&A with Gregg Williams
Posted: Thu Sep 02, 2004 8:50 pm
http://www.redskins.com/news/newsDetail.jsp?id=3239
Gregg Williams, assistant head coach-defense, spoke with Redskins.com on Wednesday after practice:
Q: Are their any defensive players on the bubble who can still make the team with a strong showing in Friday's game?
A: "Sure there are. There are still several guys. More importantly, it's not only in the ballgame, but in practice. A lot of times you guys don't see them as much as we do in the practice sessions. My mindset is--which is Coach Gibbs' concept, too--is that you are who you are in practice, and there are not a whole lot of surprises that occur in a ball game. We have already seen it on the practice field with the way we practice so spiritedly, so hard, so fast and so tough. We have a good indication. We change from day-to-day and from game-to-game just on a few minor things, but nothing really surprises us."
Q: How tough will it be to let go some of the players on the bubble?
A: "I hate that part of the game. I hate when you have to tell somebody, 'You did not make our team.' Sometimes it helps when we can do it early enough, especially with a veteran so they can go and lock on with somebody else. But that is the hardest part that we have to do when we select the team. I hated it as a high school coach and I don't like it as a pro coach either."
On Renaldo Wynn, Williams said: "He's a real smart football player and he's real steady." (Don Wright Photo)
Q: How would you assess the defense's pass rush right now?
A: "It's an issue of how you call the ballgame. I thought Renaldo Wynn played very well in the time that he played in this last ballgame, and so did Cornelius Griffin and Marcus Washington. That's why we got them out as soon as possible. We needed to see some of the younger pass rushers, and even some older pass rushers. We purposefully did not pressure that much so we could see the young guys rush the passer."
Q: What are your impressions of Wynn now having coached him?
A: "I have always admired him. We came close to drafting him a long time ago when I was in Tennessee. That is the fun part of moving around the league as a coach, or free agency as a player. You never know about players until you get to work with them day in and day out. He is a real smart football player and he is real steady. He has enough skills to do an awful lot of things. We even drop him in coverage sometimes, because he is a smart kid."
Q: The secondary gave up a lot of yards in the St. Louis Rams game. How much of cornerback play falls on the lack of a pass rush?
A: "Corner play and pass rush work hand in hand. If people want to place the heat on the corners from that game, I'll go into the film room and place the heat on the pass rush. That's where your eyes need to be, to see how long the routes are going down the field."
Q: What has Sean Taylor learned through his playing time this preseason?
"What he learned the most the other night was to trust his coach a little more. Those great ones are a little bit full of themselves enough where they know everything. Than all of the sudden, it was fun for me to watch him go to [secondary coach] Steve Jackson on the sideline and say, 'Teach me something new, coach.' That was good because he needed to get back to that."
Q: How long do anticipate the Atlanta Falcons keeping in their starters in Friday night's game?
A: "We do not worry about how long other people play their starters. We had our young guys in faster than St. Louis did last game because we wanted to see our young guys. I could care less about seeing somebody I am going to cut go against somebody they are going to cut. We need to make sure that the guys we are thinking about making this team play against the people we know are going to make their team, because that tells us if we are improving."
Gregg Williams, assistant head coach-defense, spoke with Redskins.com on Wednesday after practice:
Q: Are their any defensive players on the bubble who can still make the team with a strong showing in Friday's game?
A: "Sure there are. There are still several guys. More importantly, it's not only in the ballgame, but in practice. A lot of times you guys don't see them as much as we do in the practice sessions. My mindset is--which is Coach Gibbs' concept, too--is that you are who you are in practice, and there are not a whole lot of surprises that occur in a ball game. We have already seen it on the practice field with the way we practice so spiritedly, so hard, so fast and so tough. We have a good indication. We change from day-to-day and from game-to-game just on a few minor things, but nothing really surprises us."
Q: How tough will it be to let go some of the players on the bubble?
A: "I hate that part of the game. I hate when you have to tell somebody, 'You did not make our team.' Sometimes it helps when we can do it early enough, especially with a veteran so they can go and lock on with somebody else. But that is the hardest part that we have to do when we select the team. I hated it as a high school coach and I don't like it as a pro coach either."
On Renaldo Wynn, Williams said: "He's a real smart football player and he's real steady." (Don Wright Photo)
Q: How would you assess the defense's pass rush right now?
A: "It's an issue of how you call the ballgame. I thought Renaldo Wynn played very well in the time that he played in this last ballgame, and so did Cornelius Griffin and Marcus Washington. That's why we got them out as soon as possible. We needed to see some of the younger pass rushers, and even some older pass rushers. We purposefully did not pressure that much so we could see the young guys rush the passer."
Q: What are your impressions of Wynn now having coached him?
A: "I have always admired him. We came close to drafting him a long time ago when I was in Tennessee. That is the fun part of moving around the league as a coach, or free agency as a player. You never know about players until you get to work with them day in and day out. He is a real smart football player and he is real steady. He has enough skills to do an awful lot of things. We even drop him in coverage sometimes, because he is a smart kid."
Q: The secondary gave up a lot of yards in the St. Louis Rams game. How much of cornerback play falls on the lack of a pass rush?
A: "Corner play and pass rush work hand in hand. If people want to place the heat on the corners from that game, I'll go into the film room and place the heat on the pass rush. That's where your eyes need to be, to see how long the routes are going down the field."
Q: What has Sean Taylor learned through his playing time this preseason?
"What he learned the most the other night was to trust his coach a little more. Those great ones are a little bit full of themselves enough where they know everything. Than all of the sudden, it was fun for me to watch him go to [secondary coach] Steve Jackson on the sideline and say, 'Teach me something new, coach.' That was good because he needed to get back to that."
Q: How long do anticipate the Atlanta Falcons keeping in their starters in Friday night's game?
A: "We do not worry about how long other people play their starters. We had our young guys in faster than St. Louis did last game because we wanted to see our young guys. I could care less about seeing somebody I am going to cut go against somebody they are going to cut. We need to make sure that the guys we are thinking about making this team play against the people we know are going to make their team, because that tells us if we are improving."
