doubler

Too early to pass judgment, but not the splashy hire I was hoping for. He has a lot of experience, but mostly for poor or mediocre teams. However, a few players have made the Pro Bowl under his guidance, such as Budda Baker and a couple of Broncos DBs, so that's something.

Here's to hoping GW is a great teacher and leader along with carrying a set of 'nads large enough to stand up in room full of yes men and call bull shit when he sees it!
As long as jb is DC, ass't coach skills are useless without the ability to lead from the back!
GPG!

I checked his resume and it looks like ok hire. But we'll see. I'm blowing on cold after so many bad decisions made by MLF...

I'm just wondering about his ability to identify talent. He had Rasul Douglas on his practice squad, and we know how that turned out. I hope I'm wrong about him.

If he's an outsider(not a MLF dancing partner), things are looking up.

Well, if he was the 4-13 Cardinals' CBs coach, that's not very good. AZ's CBs were not good AT ALL this year. Budda Baker is always good, but he is a Safety, and from what I understand, this guy was their CBs coach.

Looks like a quota hire yo keep the NFL happy , nothing more besides what’s the difference who it is as long as Barry is calling the defense .

Alexander will put him in his place.
And he'll leave with Barry.

I put this under Nags' podcast. This seems like a good place also.

Greg Williams was the DB coach for Arizona since 2019. He got canned along with Kliff Kingsbury. Arizona fired Kingsbury even though some genius gave Kingsbury an extension through 2027 just last March. Oh, right, ARI also fired GM Steve Keim. Prior to that, Williams was the DB coach for the Broncos, Colts and Chargers. He was the assistant LB coach for the Chargers from 2009 to 2012. Maybe he can teach someone to tackle.

Per Tex Western at APC, the Cardinals' pass defense by DVOA ranked 26th, 9th, 5th, and 21st during Williams' four years as DB coach in Arizona. I would note that the Cardianals drafted Budda Baker 36th in 2019 as a SS and he has been above average every year. The Cardinals also found Jalen Thompson, a UDFA, in 2019, and he started immediately (2019) and has been above average every year. Both Baker and Thompson have remained healthy over those seasons (except for 2020 when Thompson missed a lot of time). In 2022, they played 968 and 1097 snaps, respectively. So, ARI has been able to put the same two above-average safeties out there every game for the last four seasons. Kudos to the GM who found Thomas and to the coaches who recognized and developed his talent.

The talent at CB has been less wonderful. The Cardinals selected a CB high in 2016 but he was out of the league prior 2019. They did use a 2nd in 2019 and a fourth in 2021 on CBs. Let's look at who played CB for them in 2022. [Year acquired - pick # - PFF grade - snaps - name.]

'21 - 137th pick - 55.3 PFF - 777 snaps - Marco Wilson
'19 - 33rd pick -- 66.7 PFF - 593 snaps - Byron Murphy
'16 - UDFA --------68.5 PFF - 418 snaps - Antonio Hamilton
'20 - UDFA --------46.3 PFF - 281 snaps - Jace Whitacker
'22 - 245th pick - 55.7 PFF- 235 snaps - Christian Matthew
'19 - 40th by LV: 48.3 PFF - 124 snaps - Trayvon Mullen

Mullen stunk up the joint for the Raiders for three seasons, and then was traded to Arizona for a 7th round pick. He continued to stink and the Cardinals released him after 8 games and 124 snaps. Dallas picked him up and he played a dozen snaps for the Cowboys in one game. He signed a futures with Baltimore. That second round pedigree keeps getting him some looks around the league.

Antonio Hamilton managed to stay on the Raiders' roster just barely in 2016 and 2017, and then became a special teams demon in 2018, 2019 and 2020 (700 ST snaps in 2019 plus 2020) for the Giants and then the Chiefs (2020). In 2021, Tampa Bay signed him as a street free agent but waived him right after the draft. Arizona signed him to the practice squad in 2021. After elevating him from the PS, someone figured out he could play CB a bit, and he ended up playing 312 pretty good snaps in 2021 (65.4 PFF grade - light green). In 2022, Hamilton was placed on IR NFI in early September and the Cardinals were not able to activate him until October 8, 2022. Thus, Hamilton was limited to 418 snaps in 2022, but posted a 68.5 PFF grade last year.

In 2021, Arizona rolled with Byron Murphy and Marco Williams at CB, their 2nd and 4th round guys. They brought in old pro Robert Alford (class of 2013) even though he was 33 and had missed all of the 2018 and 2019 seasons. Alford rewarded Arizona by providing 580 solid snaps (66.9 PFF grade). Alford went on IR on December 18th, 2021 and retired after the 2021 season.

In 2020, the Cardinals' CBs were Patrick Peterson (1096 snaps), Byron Murphy (795), and Dre Kickpatrick (750 snaps). Peterson did not have a good year. The other old pro, Kirkpatrick (17th pick in 2012) was washed up (49 PFF grade) and lasted 95 snaps with SF the next season before being out of the league. FS Thompson got hurt and the Cardinals had to play Chris Banjo some 436 snaps at safety. Banjo apparently wasn't bad, as PFF gave him a 63.6 grade, but that is kind of Banjo's overall history. Not bad but looking for an upgrade. Despite these personnel issues, Arizona finished 9th in DVOA pass defense that year.

I just pieced together information from PFR, PFF, APC, some articles on Revenge of the Birds, and looking at transaction reports. I don't watch Arizona play except against GB. Williams seems like a solid hire from what I can tell just looking around. He played a couple of guys who lacked any pedigree and managed to get decent results from some old guys as well.

Strictly speaking, Williams is the CB coach and Marcus Robertson, just hired by NO, is the DB coach. Revenge of the Birds thought well of Williams and Robertson.

Edited 2/10/22
ARI's pass DVOA dropped in 2022, but the team's starters at CB missed a ton of time. Someone in ARI is willing to use young players (and able to get something out of them sometimes, and sometimes not). IDK, but this is a decent track record. Checked previous years and found that there is no mention of a coach for the safeties, so I conclude cautiously that Robertson coached the safeties and Williams coached the CBs.

Maybe he is the new DC in waiting?? Give him a few months to assess talent all across the defense, then shit can Joe and promote him?

What can I say, I’m a dreamer.