[Chron] Mario Williams making move to outside linebacker

alright..i'll stay away. i don't want to be the buzzkill for all this. i promise you, i'm not TRYING to be debbie downer or the skeptic. i'm just calling it the way i see it. i hope i'm way wrong and you all are way right.

 

Glossing over the fact I advocated firing him. For months.

See - the key term here is "furious" - nothing any team does infuriates me. I'm not that personally invested in decisions.

But, by all means, you assume my not saying it means I'm glossing over it?

I've not said anything beyond, "Phillips is a significant upgrade." Speculating on how it might all play out is for others to do. We haven't had a single practice; there's been no free agency; etc. I have no idea how it’ll all work out and have never offered such an opinion. There are GIANT questions everywhere, complicated further by the lockout.

All I will say is that you could cut last year’s entire first team, promote the second team, and I believe Phillips will produce a better defense than Bush did last year. My focus and optimism is strictly on Wade Phillips – I’ll let the rest of it sort itself out on the field.

You're reading waaaaaaaay too much into what I’ve said. I think he'll design a better, more competent scheme that will very likely be a better fit for various players, helping to exploit strengths and hide weaknesses more effectively. I've heard enough from him and coaches to believe that, physical limitations aside (which he's actually cited), Jackson, for instance, is going to more often be put in a position to succeed than he was last year. That does not presume he WILL succeed.

 

Sorry to rerespond but - you're actually confusing two different discussions. The one about leadership was rooted in all the Baby Vince talk in 2006, when far too many people were giving him far too much credit for orchestrating a pretty fallow playoff run/Pro Bowl season. Leadership was never an issue with Carr. Discussion on him was focused primarily around his degree of culpability.

 

I doubt it, but the point is (assuming they stay injury free during the preseason) , that their defense will have more than just the 3 rookies added to it for game #1.

 

You're not following. Thinking one way, posting one way, then immediately switching gears when the team goes a different direction...this is what I'm talking about. This is one example of why several folks have given you a company man rep.

And you're free to think and post anything you want. I'm not saying you suck or anything along those lines. I'm just trying to tell you why I think you've been the target of so many half-attacks in this forum.

That's the basic definition.

And hey - I think you and I have fairly similar views of where this defense is and what this team may do next year. People are coming away with a perception that you're talking them up and consider them amazing because it's so rare for you to bring up any flaws you might see.

 

I was scanning back through the thread, got this far and quit.

This would be a pretty nice place to *start*. Thing is, we're not starting. This is year TEN. "Starting" was the same reasoning we were encouraged to use in giving Kubiak time year after year ("starting over", "inherited a 2-14 mess", "baby steps", etc.).

The Texans are mired in perpetual mediocrity, retained their coach and GM, and replaced the DC and most of their defensive coaches.

Logical, rational, or not, there is an element in many Texans that don't want to hear about "starting".

Ten. Years. ...aaaaaaanddd... nothing.

 

Do you think the defensive coaching staff was really that bad last year? They were picked by Kubiak after all. I'm more inclined to believe that the players were really that bad.

I wish I could be more optimistic, but I have the same feeling that I do for the Astros when the season is approaching: dread. Utter dread. Rather than the optimism I had before last year.

Also, it's possible the offense doesn't perform as well as last year. What if some offensive players have down years? We didn't exactly "focus" on improving our offensive depth in the draft.

 

The fact that Kubiak is the one that picked the defensive coaching staff is precisely why they were bad. What does Kubiak know about defense? Also, when he picked Bush to be the man, the guy had never been a defensive coordinator ever. At least go with someone that has experience. Frank Bush is a complete bum.

I have every reason in the world to think that there are some talented players on defense...and the fact that the Texans had one of the most pathetic defenses in NFL history leads me to believe that its the coaching that got us there. Had Frank Bush been successful elsewhere, then I may have agreed with you.

 

Kubiak is an NFL head coach. He may not know defense, but he should know who knows about defense. That is, he should be able to hire a good defensive coordinator. If he can't do that, then I have to question his judgment.

And if Kubiak doesnt know D, then how can we trust him to draft and sign defensive players?

But maybe Frank Bush is a historically bad coach. So bad that he actually made the players worse than they were. Hard for me to believe, but I guess it's possible.

 

Kubiak picked Frank Bush...someone who had never been a defensive coordinator ever. He personally chose to go with a rookie DC. You should most definitely question that judgement.

I dont trust Kubiak to draft and sign defensive players...I put that responsibility on the GM and the DC. I can trust a DC like Phillips because of his track record...love him or hate him, he has a successful history.

There was nothing positive with the Frank Bush decision...he never once showed that he is a competent DC. He should have never been promoted to that position...that falls squarely on Kubes.

 

I've always stuck for Bush to a degree. He was very good with the linebackers, and it showed.

He demonstrated that he was out of his depth coordinating the defense. The staff on the whole was terrible, the biggest example being David Gibbs, who was hired as a favor to his dad Alex.

Kubiak gets a lot of flak here because his first DC was former Denver pal Richard Smith, who flopped badly....and when McNair FORCED his firing, Kubiak quickly made former Denver pal Bush the next DC without looking around to evaluate who might be the best guy. No hiring process.

This adds to some of the frustration about Wade's hiring - once again there was no process. McNair palled with Bud, and Wade was hired before he even interviewed. The silver lining is that he actual has merit and credentials for the job.

 

I love DeMeco, but he didn't go out until the KC game and were were horrible on defense up to that point. We gave up 24, 27, 27, 24, and 34 points in the games he started. We didn't all the sudden start sucking on ice when he went down.

What has Barwin done to gain all the love I see for him on this forum? Guy is a converted TE (surprise) and has 4 sacks in 17 games. Everyone (including the Chronicle) is assuming he's going to fit right in at starting OLB, no questions asked. He's still an unproven project. Basically a rookie...who was drafted too high, IMO.

Yeah, I'm glad he won't be playing MLB this year. Oh wait...

I'm really just messing with you. I agree with your point that the defense will be better this year (how could it be worse?), but let's not pretend that Ryans and Barwin coming back plus more rookies starting is going to automatically bump us up to the #20 defense in the league. We have a lot more problems than that.

 

Agreed, but slight point - game one the defense was actually pretty good. They allowed that "garbage time" bomb and late TD, but otherwise they held Peyton down.

With you there. Absence makes the heart grow fonder?
McCain still thinks he wins the job, but I don't. With Mario at WOLB, I think Reed wins the nod for Sam and Barwin works his way in backing up both spots.

He is and he isn't. With Mario blitzing nearly every down, he does act as outside linebacker on that side of the ball. Both he and Ryans will have responsibilities that look more similar to a 4-3 OLB than a 4-3 MLB or even a 3-4 MLB.

Basically, I don't think Cushing at "MLB" is any more a concern than Mario Williams playing "OLB" in this scheme.

Automatically, no. But I think they've got a real shot at #20 in the league.

It'll be tough for teams to run between the tackles against this front 7, and tough for teams that want to develop plays deep.

I'm concerned about whether the team can lock down on West Coast offenses or Chris Johnson/Reggie Bush type high use RBs in the flats. We'll be incredibly vulnerable there if Jackson still needs his 8 yd cushions, Ryans isn't himself, and the team brings in a third tier guy to stand in as #1 CB.

But - regardless - I think they'll be drastically improved. Last year, they held an opponent to less than 24 twice, less than 27 four times. I think we can safely expect to double those numbers (<24 four times, <27 eight times). And I think that could/should/would translate to 3 more wins (9-7).

 

I hope you're right about this. All I know is that teams have more ways to consistently beat the blitz than there are blitz packages.

3-step drop + hot route + our sorry secondary = TD. Improved pass rush or not.

Remember, as of right now, we are weaker at safety than we were last year, if you can imagine that.

Once against a 3rd string QB and once in a game J-ville was basically TRYING to lose....

see above and add a game in which Tim Tebow was starting for the first time...

Again, I hope you're right. I'm a little more worried because it seems like the worst part of the worst defense ever (secondary) really hasn't been addressed yet. Harris and Carmichael will basically fight it out for nickleback and Keo isn't ready for prime-time.

 

God I hope you arent someone's lawyer!!!

 

So, are we really running a 3-4? With all the talk about how Wade's defense isn't a typical 3-4 and how Mario's role isn't all that different because he'll still be rushing 95% of the time and how with Mario rushing, Cushing still essentially functions like an OLB in a 4-3, it just sounds like all we're doing is playing a 4-3 and standing the DE up.

 

So, if there's a repeat of last year where management casually looks for a corner in FA and fails, who are our starting CB's, Jackson and Jason Allen? Quin and Nolan at safety? Heaven help us.

 

Wade Phillips is; he's brand new and a significant addition. That absolutely requires a reset, a larger reset when discussing switching schemes and having to re-evaluate personnel.

I'm struggling to hold Kubiak accountable for four terrible years when he wasn't, you know, a part of the organiztion in any, way, shape or form. And really, while you can nit and pick (I would absolutely agree they blew a golden opportunity in 2009) and be crushed by last season's slide - the majority of Kubiak's tenure has been positive. He took a bad team and absolutely made it better. Can he make it great........?

Regardless, it's time to move on. Wade Phillips is a GIANT step in the right direction and corrects a long-standing issue with this franchise: No defensive infrastructure. They've been throwing stuff against a wall to see what sticks for basically five years. So while we can absolutely be positively irked it took them five years to see what was plainly, obviously missing.... I'm choosing to embrace the fact they finally seem to have gotten it right. Or, rather: Righter.

 

When the discussion was about bringing in Cowher a year ago and the conversion to a 3-4 defense, weren't you adamantly saying that they'd be wasting their best player in Mario Williams because he could not play in a 3-4 system?

 

I jumped on board the Cowher train mid-season-ish, personnel be damned. You should know this because you tried to drag this out then, too.

A year ago, meaning before the defense fell into a seemingly bottomless pit of suck and the team underachieved overall - yes, I likely argued to leave what wasn't broke alone. 2010 changed that. It's broke. So what's your point?