Fletcher: Pick Williams

London Fletcher has left better teams twice to play for Gregg Williams, and Washington’s middle linebacker and defensive leader says the Redskins’ assistant head coach-defense is the right choice to succeed retired coach Joe Gibbs.

“Gregg would be an excellent choice,” said Fletcher, who played for Williams in Buffalo in 2002 and 2003 and rejoined him in Washington this season. “I know how he is as a head coach, as a coach and as a person. He brings a presence. He’s very demanding not only of himself, his players and his coaches. He’s very detail-oriented, extremely meticulous about his structure. He keeps his players [aware] of what he’s trying to do and how he wants to accomplish it.”

Washington’s defense, long a weakness, has ranked in the top 10 in three of Williams’ four seasons. He also helped Gibbs guide the Redskins to the playoffs in two of the last three seasons.

“When you’ve had success and make the playoffs, there’s some evidence to keep the continuity of your team and your coaching staff together,” said Fletcher, citing his St. Louis experience when the world champion Rams replaced the retiring Dick Vermeil with offensive coordinator Mike Martz and returned to the Super Bowl two years later.

That continuity is also something that Antonio Pierce advocates for the Redskins even though he now plays for the New York Giants.

“Gregg would be a great hire,” said Pierce, whom Williams made Washington’s middle linebacker when Mike Barrow’s knee went south in 2004. “It would keep the continuity that this organization, this team needs. The energy Gregg brings, everybody responds well to him.”

Fletcher, whom Williams talked into leaving the NFC champion Rams to sign with the 3-13 Bills in 2002, was in Buffalo for the coach’s last two years, when they went 14-18.

“Gregg’s record in Buffalo doesn’t really point to how good he was as a head coach,” Fletcher said. “He went to a team that had major salary cap problems, and they gutted the roster. The second year we went 8-8 and just missed making the playoffs. The third year, defensively we were No. 2 in the league, but they never really addressed the offensive line, and we went 6-10.”

Fired by Buffalo, Williams came to Washington in January 2004 to work for Gibbs, from whom he always says he has learned so much.

“I think Gregg would be a better head coach because of the experience he has as a head coach,” Fletcher said. “He knows some of the mistakes maybe he made here and there. Gregg’s still tough on his players. He’s a perfectionist. [But] he’s a master motivator. He probably sees more in us than we see in ourselves.

“Each team takes on the personality of the head coach. Gregg’s a very aggressive, attack-type of coach. Our team would be that personality. And we have better personnel here than we did in Buffalo.”