The biggest addition to the Texans defense this offseason wasn’t first-round pick J.J. Watt, but defensive coordinator Wade Phillips.
The former Cowboys coach is changing just about everything about the Texans old approach in their transition to a 3-4 defense. That includes creating the biggest outside linebacker in NFL history.
John McClain of the Houston Chronicle wrote about Williams’ planned conversion in a chat Wednesday. (A full story is coming Friday.) At 6'6 and 290 pounds, Williams will look a little crazy standing up. But McClain says he plans to drop some weight and the Texans won’t count on him to cover as the weak side outside linebacker.
“He’ll be up in running situations and down in passing situations. Sometimes they might change him around,” McClain writes.
Phillips plans to use Williams like he did DeMarcus Ware and “loves” Williams at OLB. It appears the team selected J.J. Watt in part to free up Williams from playing defensive end.
The Texans certainly have an intriguing linebacker corps now: Williams, Brian Cushing, DeMeco Ryans, Brooks Reed, and Connor Barwin.
Phillips has forgotten more about defense than we’ll ever know, so we’ll wait to see this experiment with Williams in action before making any judgement. If nothing else, it should be fun to watch.