Leonard Williams is playing for his third head coach since joining the Giants in the middle of the 2019 season and he shared some early impressions of the Brian Daboll era from the team’s offseason program.
Williams said he likes the “aggressive” mentality of the defense being installed by defensive coordinator Wink Martindale and said he looks forward to “making the offense react to us instead of the opposite way around.” Williams said his happiness with the direction of the team is being mirrored across the roster.
“The vibe I’m getting is the excitement people are coming into work with. I think guys are happy to be here,” Williams said. “They’re happy about the teammates that they have next to them. They’re happy about the coaches that are coaching them. I think when you’re happy about all those things that I just said, it makes it easier to come into work and have a great attitude and great energy, and it shows in practice how we’re flying around out there. And even today when we had that small little competition period, like you hear all the defense like getting loud and stuff like that, and it’s just a contagious energy that’s being brought right now.”
Williams didn’t make any direct comparisons to the vibe under former coach Joe Judge, but it’s hard not to see an implication that the energy and excitement levels are different than they were as the team was going 4-13 last season. It’s also not hard to remember the offseason chatter that things were going to be different for the Giants when Judge was first hired, so any real evaluation of the Giants’ direction needs to wait until the team hits the field this fall.