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PFW on Jamar Williams


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An interesting article from Profootballweekly.com:

 

Looking for more reasons why the Bears appear close to letting high-profile WLB Lance Briggs take a hike in search of much greener pastures in the free-agent market? Look no further than Jamar Williams, a fourth-round pick last season out of Arizona State, who team insiders believe has been ready for a while now to step into Briggs’ starting role, if need be. Williams offered further proof in the Bears’ Week 16 victory over the Packers. With Briggs on the sideline with a hip injury, Williams provided an instant impact, making a tackle for loss on his first snap of the day and proceeding to make five tackles and deflect a pass in only 16 snaps. Not only is Williams considered smart and skilled enough to play any of the three starting LB positions, word is he also has displayed considerable leadership potential in the locker room. There are some Bears observers who keep mentioning the possibility of Briggs taking over at middle linebacker next season, with Brian Urlacher moving to the weak side — a move they feel might take pressure off Urlacher’s chronic back ailment. But the way we hear it, the Bears are more likely to keep Urlacher in the middle and avoid having to make changes at two LB spots.

 

I am also anxious to see Mike Okwo next season. Hope both he and Dusty can shake injuries!!

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Got to hear Williams on Bears All Access on the SCORE last night. I was fairly impressed. Interesting note is he learned how to study game film in high school from his high school coach and he prides himself on game preperation.

 

Peace :bears

 

I wish I had caught the interview. I will have to check the Score website to see if it is available as replay. A High School who has players study game film? Wow, how things have changed. Never heard of HS players doing that, certainly not something we did in HS (of course, I played HS Football back in the 60s, LOL).

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I believe the reasoning would be who blocks the MLB, compared to who blocks the OLB. I believe more than any position, beyond the DL, the MLB is who lead blockers go after. Further, you far more often have a free OL block the MLB. Often Briggs is free to attack the ball carrier because it is Urlacher who the offense is seeking out to block. If you move Urlacher outside, theoretically, you might free him up more and get him away from more blocks.

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I believe the reasoning would be who blocks the MLB, compared to who blocks the OLB. I believe more than any position, beyond the DL, the MLB is who lead blockers go after. Further, you far more often have a free OL block the MLB. Often Briggs is free to attack the ball carrier because it is Urlacher who the offense is seeking out to block. If you move Urlacher outside, theoretically, you might free him up more and get him away from more blocks.

 

As you would imagine, a lot depends on the defensive scheme for the LBs. In a traditional 4-3, the sam or strong side LB is the guy who has the "dirty harry" job of being lined up over the TE and taking on blockers at the point of attack. This thankless job often doesn't show up in terms of big tackle numbers, sacks or interceptions. It was at this position that Urlacher was so erroneously placed in his rookie season under Dick Jauron/Greg Blache. As a guy who played monster/safety in college, he needed to be in space, which is more of a description of the Will/weak side linebacker.

Of the three positions, sam, will, and mike, the sam takes the most punishment, followed by mike and then will. So moving him to Will would be helpful for Urlacher.

 

Now, in Lovie's scheme, remember that the DL is playing one gap instead of two. That means the MLB has less protection, but is usually flowing downhill to an assigned gap instead of reading laterally. He's often running to that gap so fast that even when he's not covered (when we're not in an over/under and a guy is not playing over the center), the poor saps on the OL can't catch him to cut him off from the point of attack. Where he gets nailed is when teams design cutbacks, so as Url sees the play cutting back, he cuts back into the sloth-footed OL who can now cut him off with leverage and momentum in favor of the OL.

 

In pass coverage, you'll notice that when we go with a lot of cover two, the MLB has to fly into the middle of the zone coverage. His safety skills are excellently suited here. However, the WLB that Briggs plays usually has more responsibility in the shallow areas, more laterally. You'll often see Briggs chasing down the width of the field to make a play. I do think Urlacher is even better suited for this than the middle and Briggs. I also believe Briggs might be better suited to handle the middle in run support. But I don't believe Briggs could handle the medium/deep middle responsibilities of the cover two zone. What about Williams up the middle? We'll have to see that. In college, he had a surprisingly good nose for the ball in coverage, but I don't know if he has the speed to pull it off.

 

What's best for the team and Urlacher? It's a tough question, and one that should be reassessed if we let Briggs go. If he stays, it would be a tough transition for two guys. If he goes, it's really only one guy, and that one guy, Urlacher, is a pretty smart football player and I'd have to believe he'd be pretty good at it.

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I wish I had caught the interview. I will have to check the Score website to see if it is available as replay. A High School who has players study game film? Wow, how things have changed. Never heard of HS players doing that, certainly not something we did in HS (of course, I played HS Football back in the 60s, LOL).

 

 

We studied game film at Wheaton Warrenville South

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I agree Wiliams doesn't have enough speed to cover the deep middle anywhere close to what Urlacher can but you have to look at the net gain or loss. If Urlacher on the outside is as effective as Briggs (or better) and Williams is a better run defender in the middle than Urlacher then the dropoff in coverage might be more tolerable.

 

The biggest problem I'd have with this is the fact our safety play has been very spotty this season. If we had great safeties behind the MLB then this would be an easy call but if we pull Urlacher out of there our pass defense in the middle is going to be worse than it was this year. That's a scary thought.

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With all this speculation of Url moving to Will, I must admit I doubt seriously if the Bears would make such a move. I guess it depends on just how bad his back is and if he himself would feel comfortable in such a change. Still an interesting idea.

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An interesting article from Profootballweekly.com:

 

 

I am also anxious to see Mike Okwo next season. Hope both he and Dusty can shake injuries!!

I got to admit, I like the idea of Urlacher as a OLB. I think it would better utilize his speed, but he is the captain on the defense (ie calls the plays and all that stuff) and we would be asking an awful lot to have someone like Williams take over in that capacity (could an OLB still call the the plays???).

 

Either way I got to admit, as someone who is a huge Briggs fan, I was very impressed with Williams play against the Packers and I'm going to be looking forward to seeing him against the Saints (I really hope Lance doesn't play because having Williams play helps the Bears much more).

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I agree Wiliams doesn't have enough speed to cover the deep middle anywhere close to what Urlacher can but you have to look at the net gain or loss. If Urlacher on the outside is as effective as Briggs (or better) and Williams is a better run defender in the middle than Urlacher then the dropoff in coverage might be more tolerable.

 

The biggest problem I'd have with this is the fact our safety play has been very spotty this season. If we had great safeties behind the MLB then this would be an easy call but if we pull Urlacher out of there our pass defense in the middle is going to be worse than it was this year. That's a scary thought.

Plus, if the Bears upgrade at the safety position it could take a little more pressure off of Williams or whomever stepped in as the MLB as right now I think the MLB has a lot more pressure due to the poor help the team gets over the middle of the field from its safeties.

 

But I really dont' know how scheming and everything works so Noots I appreciate your post. Gave me a much better understanding of the different duties bestowed upon Mike/Wil/SLB.

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I agree Wiliams doesn't have enough speed to cover the deep middle anywhere close to what Urlacher can but you have to look at the net gain or loss. If Urlacher on the outside is as effective as Briggs (or better) and Williams is a better run defender in the middle than Urlacher then the dropoff in coverage might be more tolerable.

 

The biggest problem I'd have with this is the fact our safety play has been very spotty this season. If we had great safeties behind the MLB then this would be an easy call but if we pull Urlacher out of there our pass defense in the middle is going to be worse than it was this year. That's a scary thought.

Well, on the other hand though...a big portion of the Bears Pass defense has been out this season. Vasher's been out all year pretty much, and so has Brown. I still think the Bears have little choice but to try to bring Brown back because he's so unbelievably effective for the few games he's in there...you just don't want him signing a minimal contract with the Cowboys, Packers, Patriots, or something like that, then having him miraculously be healthy the next couple years. Even if you weakened the pass defense by moving Urlacher around, just bringing back Vasher and not playing Archuleta will help that.

 

Clearly, the Bears have at least 1 safety hole to fill in, probably could use 2. But with the issues on offense being so much more severe, esp. with the offensive line, I don't think you can spend anything higher than a 3rd rounder on a safety, even if there's someone you really, really like. It's possible that finding a FA/trade bargain (i.e. like say, Chris Harris was for the Panthers) would be a good solution as well.

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I wish I had caught the interview. I will have to check the Score website to see if it is available as replay. A High School who has players study game film? Wow, how things have changed. Never heard of HS players doing that, certainly not something we did in HS (of course, I played HS Football back in the 60s, LOL).

We study(ied) game film of the other team on mondays and then we studied the game film from our game on the following saturday or sunday...

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