Rams Practice Report 8/23: Defense Under Williams

Practice Report 8/23: Defense Under Williams


Myles Simmons

[www.therams.com]

Gregg Williams is heading into his third season as the Rams’ defensive coordinator. Known as a coach who can adapt his scheme to get the most out of his players, Williams has a kind of advantage going into Year 3 with the club.

“There’s not a lot of new stuff. They’re used to me, I’m used to them,” Williams said. “It’s been a real productive spring, and I do like how they’ve come back from the spring OTAs, and coming back in condition here for these training camp practices. It’s been a real positive format, so far.”

The familiarity Williams has with Los Angeles’ veterans means more time can be devoted in preseason games to players he may not know as much about. For instance, Williams said he wasn’t concerned about defensive end Robert Quinn not playing much in the preseason because he knows what the lineman can do.

“I need to see him play on gameday in [the] regular season,” Williams said. “I’ve been through a lot of games with him, I see him in practice every day. He’ll got some limited reps, but not looking to get a lot of banging around because I want to see him banging around come Monday Night Football against San Francisco.”

When a player has recorded 50 sacks in only 71 games over five seasons, it’s a clear indication of elite-level talent. It’s another reason why Williams doesn’t feel a need to see Quinn do much in games that don’t count, especially given that Quinn is returning from back surgery.

“He does things that you can’t coach, he has some of the fastest-twitch pass-rushing I’ve ever seen,” Williams said.

One of the ways that comes through on the field is how quickly Quinn can turn the corner on an offensive tackle.


“When you watch a pass rusher turn the corner, everybody in the National Football League has to turn the corner at nine yards. The good ones start turning the corner at eight yards, the Pro Bowlers will start turning the corners at seven yards,” Williams said. “You’ll see Robert turn [the corner on an offensive tackle] it at a four, five and six [yards – not very many people can do that, only the elite of the elite.

“I can’t coach that,” Williams continued. “I’m a better coach when he plays and does that — I’m telling you that.”

Williams likes to let players use their natural instincts. He’s talked about it with defensive tackle Aaron Donald, and mentioned a same sort of principle when discussing Mark Barron’s transition from safety to weakside linebacker.

“Last year, the biggest thing we wanted to do as a staff is not overload him, not slow him down,” Williams said. “I told the staff ‘don’t coach him. Unless he asks a question, let him alone – and then when he asks a question, that’s what he needs to know to figure it out.’

“Now, this year, we’ve started from day one, scratch one, building him back up through there and the light has really clicked on for him,” Williams added. “He’ll be even better this year.”

Plus, between Barron and middle linebacker Alec Ogletree, Williams thinks the Rams can be one of the fastest teams on defense in the league.

“I really can’t wait to see he and Ogletree play together,” Williams said. “You guys are going to see a pretty good, fast pair of backers doing things.”

But those are players Williams knows well. For the ones he doesn’t, he relies on preseason playing time to see who can realistically contribute to the defense.

“Practices are so much different now in the NFL and training camp, with the non-contact that you have — the ways with not very many padded practices,” Williams said. “So now you get a chance to get them into a game, especially some of these young college guys coming in as rookies. And even some of the veteran guys that we sign free agents that came from other teams.”

The next chance to evaluate will come on Saturday in Denver — a team that will certainly present challenges in all three phases as the reigning Super Bowl Champions.

“The things that have happened in the first half in a couple of these games have been very good correctable things that these guys have grown from,” Williams said. “So far, so good. Now when they take the next step this week, It’ll be interesting to see these guys play.”