Gregg Williams

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You can think of O'Reilly Auto Parts while your car care needs get guaranteed low prices and excellent customer service from the professional parts people at O'Reilly Auto Parts. Let's go out to the guest line right now. Welcome in long time NFL defensive coordinator now is with the D.C. defenders in the XFL. He is the former head coach of the Buffalo Bills and also a former interim coach of the Cleveland Browns. And I know a lot of people are having fun with this on social media yesterday. Greg Williams is getting at it right before the Cleveland Browns game up against Cincinnati Bengals.

And I saw him having a good time tailgating in the parking lot and the long time NFL defensive coordinator is here with us. Greg, appreciate the time. How are you?

Thank you very much. I'm doing great. And that was a great experience yesterday in 40 plus years of coaching. I never had a chance. It's the first tailgate I've ever been in in my life. And those Cleveland Browns fans were phenomenal. It was fun to be around them.

And I was glad to see how well they played in the game also. So what brought you to the game? Just wondering, I know that you were there in Cleveland for a few years, but I think a lot of people were surprised to see you there before the game. Well, the big thing is, as you see sitting beside me is my son, Blake Williams, and he was on the staff with me, too. And it was about 15 years in the NFL and won a Super Bowl with, he and I were the very first father and son to win a Super Bowl together on the same coaching staff down at the New Orleans Saints many years ago. But he still lives here in town and has a beautiful home here and now has moved over into wealth management and technology and his ownership of a couple of companies and works in downtown Cleveland.

And in fact, his office looks right down at the Cleveland Browns stadium. And so I came in here to see the family for the weekend and all of a sudden, bam, we went downtown. It's his idea to go do that. And, you know, and I thought it was a fantastic idea.

And it was a lot of fun. So Greg Williams and Blake Williams here with us on the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. Blake, didn't you go to Princeton, right? I did.

Yes, I did. For years, I actually did a local radio show with Bob Saray. So what a small world that is. I always loved that Princeton community.

Great place. Yeah, he's done an amazing job. I mean, I can't say enough, honestly, about what he's done. And I didn't play under Bob. I was under a different coaching staff, but he came in, I think, during my time when I was coaching at the Saints. And he's done an amazing job there, developing guys, recruiting guys. I mean, different guys, right?

Like, if you look at the number of Ivy League guys that are playing in the NFL right now, and the vast majority of them are from Princeton under him. He and his staff have done a heck of a job there. So, Greg, what were you like at the tailgate yesterday, just wondering? Because we saw some of the pictures, but it seemed like you were enjoying yourself. How was the food? How were the drinks down there? Well, you love this, is that I didn't, I had an Ultra, a Michelob Ultra, one beer before I left, and I didn't have time to eat or do anything because the fans were so great, and I will never turn my shoulder on any fan in my whole career. And we had a great time taking pictures and videos with them because they were such great fans. And, you know, I guess I liked it when I was here and did a lot of autograph signing and that kind of stuff, but really was just going down there to have a good time. But then when they wanted the autographs and then when they wanted videos and pictures, we did that too, and it was a fantastic time. I'll say the food and drinks were pretty good when he was playing mayor of the beauty lot. I always get into some of the pierogies and wings and a couple more different types of beers, and it was a good time. It was awesome. So there's a big push behind the scenes right now, and we'll see if somebody can handle the budget right and see if I can step in and make sure everybody's doing the right thing as being the mayor of Cleveland.

So how about that? Man of the people, Greg Williams here with us along with his son, Blake Williams as well. What did you make, Greg, though, of that Browns defensive performance because the whole Joe burrowed a three points and under a hundred yards passing.

Man, that was an impressive performance yesterday. And I'm very happy and very proud. You know, Jim Schwartz worked on a staff with me before at the Titans and moved his way up through the ranks there at the Titans before I left to go to the bills. And then I got a chance to make my position known well with coach Jeff Fisher, a good friend of mine, and I pushed very hard for him to hire Jim as I left. And he's just done a very, very, very good job in his career. It's not a shock to me at all on how he got those guys to play.

Now, I will tell you this. They did a very, very good job of disturbing and disrupting Joe burrow. And you can also see whether I don't care what other people think the importance of getting some live snaps in preseason games. And as you saw, he was behind a little bit in some of the decisions that he was making that they were very disruptive on moving him off the spot that the quarterback wants to occupy. And tell you the truth, Jim blitzed a little bit more than I thought. You know, 39 percent of the snaps that he called in the ballgame were some type of a blitz pressure. And I was wondering if he was listening to me talking his head or not, because I'm always the one who blitzes more than anybody else.

And Jim rose up and pressured pretty good, too. Greg, what was it like when you were in Cleveland to coach Myles Garrett? Because we know how what he's turned into be and we know how great of a player he is.

But give me kind of that background. You'd be in the same locker room as him. Well, the big thing that was that I had a big voice and us drafting him number one overall, I can tell some behind the scenes stories of the draft room that I really shouldn't share on who they thought they were going to draft until I kind of put my foot down and said, we're going to draft Myles Garrett unless you want me to have a press conference.

And so we ended up taking Myles. He's got rare athletic ability. He continues to need to be pushed and prodded and to continue to be the best that he can be. He's doing a better job with his voice, but now he has to understand with his voice. His example that he sets means so much more on his effort, his toughness, his technique, all the things that he's doing now as a leadership has to be seen before listened to. And I'm really proud of how far he's come.

And I think Jim Schwartz will take him even further. So what were those decisions like? You teased that a little bit. What were those decisions like in the draft room before you guys went to Myles Garrett? You know, I think everybody pretty much understands that I'm going to voice my opinion and you asked me my opinion and I voice my opinion and it hurts your feelings.

Don't ask me the next time. Greg Williams here with us along with his son, Blake. I want to ask you a little about some that used to work with Sean Paden yesterday did not go their way up against the Las Vegas Raiders. But what do you think Sean's going to bring to the Denver Broncos after taking a year off? I think Sean is a phenomenal football coach. And in all honesty, he's the best offensive football coach I've ever had a chance to work with. It did not surprise me one bit that he onside kick to open the game. It did not surprise me at all on whatever anybody else wants to talk about on field position.

It was as I take a look at both of those guys. Josh McDaniels is a very close friend of mine. Also, I have a lot of respect for him as an offensive coach and two really strong offensive coaches going back and forth. There were only really six real possessions apiece and they both ran the clock very well. It ended up being a low scoring game and you can see how close it is to making every play be the most important play of the game.

When you come down and win a one point game in the National Football League. But I think both of those guys did a very good job and then they'll continue to adapt to the personnel that they get a chance to coach. You know, Sean is outstanding on adapting to his personnel.

He understands the verbiage. He understands the style of offense he wants to play. It was really good for me to see how much pocket presence that Russell Wilson had yesterday, as opposed to moving off the spot, running, taking off and doing all the other improvising things. That's not going to go well with Sean Payton. I'm just letting you know. And he and Drew Brees were fantastic about that.

Drew was a little bit more mobile before Sean started coaching him and started talking about the timing of every single play and the reads of every single play to make sure you control the timing and not the other team control the timing. They'll only get better. And I look for good things to happen back in Denver. Yeah, I totally agree. I mean, I was I was an offensive coach for Sean Payton when we were together at the Saints. And so, I mean, I know intimately like what he's he's doing, how he's thinking, how he's going about it. He's a like, like you said, I mean, he's a an amazing strategist. He gets how to teach.

He gets how to how to structure it. You know, the way he sequences the plays and the way he builds it around what the guys can do. Obviously, I think Russell brings and does some different things than even Drew. But I think you already saw a level of efficiency, a level of on schedule timing, ball being spit out.

And then you saw Russell make do like kind of what he's always done, make some of the off schedule plays yesterday. But I think that's going to be a that's going to be a hard nosed division, right? I mean, there's there's some studs on the on the Raiders defense as well, too.

And that's going to be part of it. And I think that the running game part of it that I don't think maybe enough people because of all the all the stats they put up passing, you know, throughout the years in New Orleans, I don't think people realize just how good the the run offense and how multiple that is in Sean Payton's offense as well, too. And I think that'll continue to build out and click and just help help Russell and the crew even more when able to do that. Greg, just hearing what your son Blake said and then also knowing Russell Wilson a little bit as a player and having to go up against him in years past. You know, a lot of people trying to figure out what is Russ as a quarterback now in twenty twenty three after a bad year a year ago, if you were still game planning up against him, what would you really be targeted and knowing what Sean likes to do and where Russ is right now? Well, the big thing is, is that good defenses and again, I was a quarterback, you know, a long time ago, an offensive coordinator, a long time ago. And when I got the chance to move up in the profession, I asked to move over and learn from Jack Party and the George Allen philosophy of defense to be a defensive coach and a special teams coordinator, knowing that when I become a head coach, then I've done all of that stuff.

And you have an awareness about what everything's going on. The number one thing that a defense must be able to do at the highest level in the world and professional football is change the decisions that the quarterback is getting ready to make, change the decisions that the play caller is getting ready to make. Now, does that mean, you know, through disguise type things or does that mean through disruption and moving the quarterback off the spots that he wants to throw the timing and how you're covering potential route concepts and stuff? All of that goes into it. And yesterday, again, the first fast paced game of the year, you can see a few of those things still maybe being a little bit rigid in Russell's mind on having enough confidence to go ahead and check to another play that Sean allows him to do or function exactly on time, if manageable, doing the play that you wanted to do.

And I thought both the defenses yesterday in that ballgame did some good disruptive things also. Last thing I'll ask you guys, and feel free to approach whoever who wants to between Greg and Blake Williams, what is it like to coach together? Well, you know, I was I had no idea, you know, he goes to Princeton and all of a sudden he gets a tremendous degree at Princeton. He's going to be a dumb ass coach. I'm thinking, what did I pay all that money? I paid all that money for five years at Princeton to be a dumb ass coach.

Now, with all that being said and done. He's the best and it has nothing to do with being with me, but my son, he's the best assistant coach I've ever had. I never had to say things more than once to him.

He figured things out on his own. And that aspect, whenever you become and move up to the profession, you're no longer babysitting coaches because you're already babysitting enough players or enough other people in a professional organization that really don't belong. And so how many people can you surround yourself just like Sean Payton? How many people can you surround yourself that you no longer have to babysit so that you can be the expert that you are supposed to be? It was very, very, very fun doing that with him. And now he becomes a know-it-all in wealth management and becomes a know-it-all in technology.

And so I'm anxious to see the next steps that he takes in that field, too. Obviously, there's nuances, right? When you call it nepotism, call it whatever, right? When you're working with your father, whether you're on the opposite side of the staff, you know, coaching with Sean Payton or together, and you have to navigate those by just not worrying about it, working your butt off, you know, showing the guys that you can help and whatnot and what you're about. But the thing that I think I appreciated the most I took from him in so many aspects of when I had a chance to go be a coordinator, different places, or even when I'm leading, you know, now in my various businesses is just the way the organizational structure and the say what you mean, mean what you say. You always knew exactly where you stood with him as your boss. You always knew exactly what he wanted because he was going to tell you directly and then stick to that. Organizationally, like you knew exactly what you needed to do, where you needed to be, when. All of those things from the nth degree, which made it so easy. I always felt for us as assistant coaches or players to just to just do what we were having to do. Right. And not have any sort of confusion or disorganization or mixed messages or whatnot.

There's no mixed messages and no disorganization going on. And so learn a lot about that and just try to continue to take that into all processes and the rest of my life. Well, gentlemen, I appreciate the time. Good luck the rest of the way. Thanks so much for doing this. Thank you very much. I appreciate what you do.

And remember this, you know, my father in law, I lost him a couple of months ago. Mike Shannon, the legendary St. Louis Cardinal player and broadcaster, and he constantly, constantly pounded into me. Make sure you understand the professional sports, young man. It's for the fans. Make sure the fans love being involved with what you do. Make sure that and I hear that in my head every single time. And we appreciate what you're doing also. And don't ever, ever, ever apologize for being the best you can be. And don't ever apologize for checking whoop ass.

You got it, Greg and Blake. Thanks so much. Appreciate the time. You bet. Appreciate you.

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