So after a bit of a delay, Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams met with the assembled media down here in New Orleans Wednesday. (He also talked to the folks pretending to be media like myself.)
Williams was inevitably asked about Brad Childress’ complaints about the Saints’ defensive style, but made no apologies for the team’s approach.
“The number one criteria here when I was hired here was changing the attitude of the defense,” Williams said. “Our players are going to play hard. They are always going to play hard. And if they don’t play hard they are going to stand by me.”
Williams cited Buddy Ryan as his biggest influence schematically. We’d love to see Williams get another head coaching job not only because of his aggressive schemes, but because of his Ryan-like confidence and quotes.
“If you go back to wherever I’ve been, I’ve had some of the most dominant defenses ever to play in the NFL,” Williams said.
So, yeah. He’s pretty convinced his approach works. And if you hire Gregg Williams, you know what you are getting.
“I’m one of those coaches that has enough stroke in the league that the reason the owners hire me is they can’t coach the team,” Williams said. “When he wants to coach the team, he can coach the team. But if [my players] don’t play a certain way, they can stand by me.”