[Chron] Mario Williams making move to outside linebacker

Which has been my fear all along. Then if we bring someone like Gruden in we'd move back to 4-3 and have wasted a year.

 

Not sure what all the gloom and doom is about. Last year our red carpet/prevent/bend don't break/vanilla defense was an absolute joke. We didn't add anyone in that offseason and then proceeded to lose key guys all season long beginning with D-Rob and then Cushing, Barwin, and Ryans. Now Barwin, Cushing, and Ryans are back you've added significant depth and flexibility with Watt, Reed, Harris, and Roc. Also you know the Texans will add a vet corner even if it's not Asomugah. Improved depth, youth from the draft, guys back from injuries, a vet corner and maybe a safety, and then throw in Phillips who get's to concentrate on what he does best. Some guys are meant to be head coaches but excel in their area of expertise. How's that Dom Capers guy doing these days?

Point is with all of the pass rushing demons on this team, Wade will be able to move people around. Flexibility will be key and the vanilla defense will be long long gone.

 

I see Wade Phillips all the time in and around Beaumont. Sometimes for arranged appearances, like golf tournaments, sometimes unexpectedly. He has taken over Kevin Millar's spot for "celebrity" I see most often.

 

That's what I'm thinking too. If we fail again this year, one of three things will happen.

1) McNair will bring back both Gary and Wade. He'll make some excuses about how the offense was still good and how Wade just needs another year with the D, how firing Bush and switching schemes was "traumatic" and how the lockout had a negative effect on everything.

2) Kubiak will be fired and Wade will be promoted to head coach.

3) Kubiak will be fired and Wade will be forced upon whoever the new HC is, much like how Miami was wanting to keep Mike Nolan as DC while courting Jim Harbaugh and Bill Cowher to be HC. But both balked and they ended up keeping Sparano.

I'd say the chances of the Texans continuing to suck and Wade getting the axe are very, very slim.

 

it's all the Texans merit until they prove something better.

and no, "baby steps--or incremental improvement followed by falling off the map, butbut wait it's Bush's fault!!!!--don't prove anything.

just win, baby. most of us are on the bandwagon and aren't going anywhere. but if you want me to actually be upbeat about where this team is headed, they're going to have to actually do something tangible. for the first time. ever.

 

I think Mario will cut weight, get quicker, improve his footwork and make a fine OLB. I'd like to see him check in for the first game at around 270lbs.

 

http://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2011/05/06/mario-williams-linebacker/

Mario Williams, Linebacker?
May 6th, 2011 | Author: Khaled Elsayed
Prompted by the drafting of J.J. Watts, there’s been some chatter. Chatter that suggests something rather interesting may be a brewing. Chatter that says Mario Williams is about to become a six foot seven, monster of a linebacker.

Now it’s important to remember it’s just that as of right now: chatter. But it’s not like Williams hasn’t played with his hand off the ground before.

Only last year he played 113 of his 793 snaps (including penalty-erased plays) with his hand off the ground. On 13 of those plays he dropped into coverage, 70 he rushed the passer and the remaining were run plays or pre-snap penalties.

Those are the raw numbers but what about the performance? And, primarily, what about his pass rushing?


Well before dropping a dose of analysis on you, how about a few more numbers. In 2010, Mario Williams rushed the quarterback 465 times. He picked up 60 combined sacks, hits and hurries (or as we like to call them quarterback disruptions.) That’s an average of a pressure for every 7.75 times he rushed.

With his hand off the ground and him as free as a bird he picked up seven QB disruptions on 70 rushes; an average of one pressure for every 10 times he rushed the QB from a linebacker like role. A small sample size, but a noticeable difference.

Anyway, now onto digging into some film. Up first, these are the quarterback disruptions he caused while standing up:


Week 1 versus Indianapolis. 2nd and 8 with 2:44 left in the 2nd Quarter
Williams lines up as a RE in a three man line opposite the left tackle, but before the snap stands up and moves outside the tight end. Comes off the edge and beats Charlie Johnson outside to pick up the sack.


Week 1 versus Indianapolis. 3rd and 10 with 2:00 left in the 2nd Quarter
Williams lines up as a RE in a three man line outside the LT’s shoulder, but before the snap stands up and moves outside the tight end. Using his hands to swat Johnson away before hitting the quarterback as he throws the ball. Result of play: fourth down.

Week 3 versus Dallas. 1st and 10 with 5:10 left in the 2nd Quarter
Texans use a 3-4 formation with Williams as ROLB outside LT Doug Free. Comes off the edge and is picked up by LG (Kyle Kosier) but is able to bull rush him, and pressure Romo into throwing early.

Week 3 versus Dallas. 3rd and 3 with 8:24 left in 3rd Quarter
Williams lines up as a LLB in a 3-3-5 formation outside the RT Marc Colombo. Is unblocked as RT picks up blitzing linebacker inside, and Williams hits the quarterback as he throws. Ball almost picked off.

Week 4 at Oakland. 2nd and 5 with 8:02 left in 4th Quarter
Williams lines up as RLB outside LT in 3-3-5 formation. Beats Mario Henderson outside, forcing QB into early throw.

Week 5 versus New York Giants. 3rd and 7 with 5:31 left in 3rd Quarter.
Texans play a sub package ‘Psycho’ defense with only one defensive linemen (Amobi Okoye) having their hand on the ground. Williams lines up outside the left tackle, beats David Diehl outside and pressures Manning into a quick throw.

Week 8 at Indianapolis. 3rd and 10 with 14:45 left in 3rd Quarter
Texans again with ‘Psycho’ defense with only one defensive linemen (Amobi Okoye) with Williams lined up outside TE. Beats Charlie Johnson outside and comes back to pressure Manning just as he is about to throw.


And now, some select plays of him dropping into coverage:


Week 2 at Washington. 2nd and 8 with 8:15 left in 3rd Quarter
Defense in nickel, Williams lines up outside LT with his hand off the ground in RLB spot. Drops into zone and into throwing lane that disrupts pass that is thrown behind receiver.

Week 3 versus Dallas. 1st and 10 with 10:59 left in 2nd Quarter
Texans run 3-4 with Williams lined up as the ROLB outside LT. Holds position before chasing down field when recognizing it as a screen play to the other side.

Week 3 versus Dallas. 2nd and 16 with 9:44 left in 2nd Quarter
Texans in sub package D with Williams (ROLB in 2-4-5 look) lined up outside LT. Williams fakes to rush half heartedly before dropping into coverage. No receivers in area.

Week 5 versus New York Giants. 1st and 10 with 2:51 left in 2nd Quarter
Texans run 3-4 with Williams at LOLB spot outside TE. Williams drops into hole three yards deep (while Texans run overload blitz on right side) and to the left, making an effort (unsuccessfully to deflect a ball).



Just four plays there but the Texans got Williams covering a zone not too far away from the line of scrimmage on each of them. Obviously with Williams all they’re trying to do is create some confusion, and because they did it so rarely (24 times) teams weren’t able to exploit it. Williams wasn’t thrown at once in coverage, but if he’s asked to play more outside linebacker then he will be.

Probably the best example to draw is Tamba Hali. The Chief only dropped into coverage 12.59% of plays despite playing 3-4 outside linebacker (less than defensive end John Abraham who was in coverage for 13.08% of plays.) While Williams will likely be back peddling on more than the 4.91% of plays he managed in 2010, it’s not like Wade Phillips is going to turn him into a James Harrison type ‘backer who can handle playing in coverage over 40% of the time.

Going back to Hali, because the Chiefs didn’t ask a lot from him in coverage he was only thrown at six times all year (including the post season.) So just because Williams is playing with his hand off the ground, doesn’t mean he’s going to become a target for opposing quarterbacks. Plus you also have to remember there’s two games a year against the Colts which mean you can forget about base defense and use Williams with his hand in the ground (like the Chiefs do with Hali and Phillips did with both DeMarcus Ware and Anthony Spencer.)

The bottom line is: Mario Williams’ ethos isn’t going to be changing. When a quarterback drops back and surveys the field looking for an option, Williams is going to be coming for him.

So long as he’s doing that it’s hard to imagine him not being successful.

 

Well, my question to you is why do you automatically "assume" what happened to Wade in Dallas to be a mere aberation? Especially since he belly-flopped when he had total control of the defense, had far better personnel to use with said defense than what he has to work with here and the support of an owner who was desperate for him to succeed. I watched Wade very closely while he was DC for the Cowboys and what I observed was that as teams caught on to his schemes, Wade appeared to have no answer. It was this defensive crash-and-burn that ultimately doomed him up here. We can agree that he's definitely not HC material (although he appears to be ontrack to be Texans HC no. 3) but to automatically dismiss what happened to his defense in Dallas is to ignore reality.

 

I can see that happening, which would suck...

I'm leary of seeing Mario make the move...he doesn't strike me as a DWare type of guy (tough, play hurt, relentless motor, etc)...but I hope he is...

 

Wow! Another BattleRed koolaid drinker with deficiency in reading comprehension. If you read my posts v e r y s l o w l y, you would realize that I am most definitely NOT a fan of Jerry's team. But since you want to hurl insults, how's this: Get back to me when the Texans actually make the playoffs. I could have said "actually win a Super Bowl" but given their history, I believe that it's best to set the bar low.

 

The thing that gives me the most uncertainty about Wade as the Texans' DC is exactly what HillBoy points out above. At the end of his tenure in Dallas, the word up here was that teams were "on to" what the defense was going to do pre-snap. Apparently, teams - other than the Texans in Week 3 - were able to survey the field, identify the rushers, and exploit the secondary almost at whim.

 

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/peter_king/05/08/mmqb/3.html

 

Ok, pet peeve alert. His name is JJ Watt. No 's'. I can't tell you how many times I've heard "Watts" already.

Just like Owen Daniels' name is not Daniel, and it's Kevin Walter (not Walters).

 

Total organizational meltdowns of that magnitude are a component of *everything* falling part: Bad drafts and free agency signings catching-up to you; coaches losing their players; the players quitting on the coaches; injuries, etc. A team with that much talent, and very recent success, doesn't suddenly fall off a cliff simply because Wade Phillips suddenly forgot how to coach a defense. That’s a little too simple-minded/agenda-setting for me.

And, again, he has a wealth of success (especially as a defensive coordinator) that trumps a mere 8-game meltdown... such as the previous three years in which Phillips took the great Bill Parcells' rebuild and actually improved upon it, something you continue to cavalierly ignore because it didn't happen within an unfortunate 8-game stretch last year that conveniently frames your conclusion.

Apparently not close enough because with Phillips as defensive coordinator in 2009, the Cowboys finished with the 9th best defense in football, improved from 22nd in scoring to 2nd, and won their first playoff game since the Aikman/Smith/Irvin era. I know – “But, but……. 1-7!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” It's old. He oversaw a meltdown, kinda, sorta similiar to Dom Capers here in 2005. Man, has that guy disappeared............

 

Ric, I get the impression that your desire to believe in the Texans is so great that you simply don't want to hear anything that contradicts the snow job er spin job being woven by Uncle Bob and Kubiak and their PR supervisor John McClain. But you have yet to provide an answer to what happened to Wade and his defense last season. Did you even see what Desihooper wrote:

At the end of his tenure in Dallas, the word up here was that teams were "on to" what the defense was going to do pre-snap. Apparently, teams - other than the Texans in Week 3 - were able to survey the field, identify the rushers, and exploit the secondary almost at whim.

That plus the fact that Wade saw this happening and had no answer is what what concerns me the most about him. Yes, he has been very successful but all of that success does not erase nor explain away what happened to his defense in Dallas. He had TOTAL control of that defense. He had a far better roster to work with and a far better situation than he faces here and yet when it came time to justify his status as a great defensive coach, he came up lacking. Believe me on this: Had he been the same guy his reputation says he is, the one you keep harping about, he would still be the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys. It was the defensive shortcomings - HIS defensive shortcomings that led to his ouster. The Cowboys are now in the process of dismantling a defense that as you put it one in which Phillips took the great Bill Parcells' rebuild and actually improved upon it.

Yes, his defense was very good in 2009 as you keep pointing out. But unfortunately for Wade, last year was 2010 and not 2009 and when his defense fell apart, he had no answer.

You know, this whole thing with Coach FixIt brings to mind when the Texans hired Alex Gibbs to coach up the ZBS. A lot of folks here placed their faith in that move only to wind up disappointed (again). In the end, many were happy to see him go. While I certainly hope that Wade fares better here than Gibbs, I do maintain that to expect him to do what he did at Buffalo or Denver or SD or even Dallas 2009 with this cast of characters is asking a bit much of Uncle Wade.

You are expecting him to succeed in one year by taking a defensive team they spent years building to play a 4-3 defense (only to historically suck) and in ONE year convert it to a 3-4 defense with no NT and with your best defensive player being asked to move from a 4-3 DE to a 3-4 OLB (which as McClain says should be OK because he'll only be asked to cover 5% of the time and I am certain the other teams will be good sports and not try to force Mario into pass coverage as a matter of common courtesy). And I do wonder what Wade has up his sleeve to counter when the opposing teams figure out this defense like they did in Dallas. Should be interesting to see if pro football ever returns.

 

I don't disagree with the rest of your post, but just thought I'd point out that Gibbs was pretty successful here and can indirectly be attributed to a lot of Arian Foster's success. In 2008, the ZBS made Steve Slaton look like an all-pro in the making. In 2009, Slaton got fumble-itis, and we were stuck with Chris Brown and Ryan Moats and had season ending injuries to two interior lineman. Last year the o-line was healthy and we had a competent runner, and the ZBS was effective again.

Wade will certainly improve our defense, but for all his acclaim, he has never even made it to a conference championship game as a DC or HC. Couple that with Gary's tendency for epic gameplan failures, and that's not a recipe to get very far. I feel like our best case scenario is a typical Chargers team -- great regular season, out in the first or second round.

 

No, Hillboy – I’ve answered it repeatedly because it’s the only stretch of a ~40-year coaching career that you have any interest in discussing: I believe it’ll prove to be an aberration. I believe when organizations implode, they implode completely and that it’s never one person’s fault and it sure as heck isn’t the fault of a very good coach suddenly forgetting how to coach and/or being found out by his opponents.

We saw the same thing here with Dom Capers in 2005, where he oversaw a total organizational train wreck. He then joined the 18th-ranked Dolphin defense the following year and they finished 4th in his first year as DC. He then took over the 20th-ranked Packer defense and they jumped to 2nd in his first year.

I expect the Texans will make a similar leap in Phillips’ first year and be, at the very least, league-average in 2011.

Who are these people? It’s a fact that 99.999999999999999% of all Dallasites are certified morons so I’m inclined to dismiss it outright, especially if it’s a media source. At the very least, I’m willing to give an experienced, respected coach a chance to prove it was an aberration before deciding 8 games is a large enough sample size to draw a definitive conclusion at the expense of roughly ~400 other games he has on his resume.

I expect the defense will be markedly better; I think the players will be better coached and put in better position to succeed (or, at the very least – not put in position to fail).

Meanwhile, all this talk of this guy and that guy moving is merely conjecture – it’s silly to draw any conclusions about it right now since Phillips hasn’t even been on the field with any of these guys yet.

 

Yeah, that would be terrible....................

 

I know to most a perennial winning team sounds great, but I couldn't care less about making the playoffs if we don't know how to win once we get there. I feel almost certain that we'll never even get a whiff of a Super Bowl as long as Kubiak is here, short of Matt Schaub becoming the next John Elway.

Sure, it's fun to have a good season and would be nice, but ultimately all a playoff birth will do is buy Gary/Wade more time from Uncle Bob, and the longer they are here, the further we are from a championship.

Once the season gets here, I'll put on my fan hat and hope for the best, fully understanding that any team is capable of making a run reminiscent of Arizona a couple of years ago in the playoffs. But, deep down, I have a strong feeling about the amount of success we can ultimately have with Gary, and I want more than that.

 

I love this - we're now griping about Kubiak not being able to win a playoff game before he actually, you know, coaches a playoff game. Unreal.

I'd sign up for 100 years of Kubiak/Phillips if it meant "a perennial winning team."