Williams leaves mark on defense

If coach Joe Gibbs is building a team of “real Redskins,” the personnel on the defensive side of the ball might be called “Gregg’s guys.”

Assistant head coach for defense Gregg Williams has left a distinct imprint on the roster in his first season in Washington. Gone are name-brand contributors like Regan Upshaw, Jeremiah Trotter, Rashad Bauman and Ifeanyi Ohalete. Filling key roles are unheralded players like Ryan Clark, Antonio Pierce, Joe Salave’a and Ron Warner.

The personnel choices are partly why the unit ranks No.2 despite key injuries and the club’s overall struggles. Williams’ players are tough, smart and trustworthy. They think fast and play fast. And they have a fundamental hunger. In short, Williams’ personnel choices say a lot about him and the scheme he runs.

“One of the best jobs that’s been done here was the cutting of the football team,” defensive line coach Greg Blache said. “It came down to who can we trust? Who will fit into the system? Who will be there through the tough times? So far, I think most of those decisions have been correct.”

A track record of NFL success helps Williams pick players. Promoted to Tennessee Titans defensive coordinator in 1997, he oversaw some outstanding defenses, including the league’s top-ranked unit in 2000. That defense statistically edged out the Baltimore Ravens’ heralded group, which won the Super Bowl and is considered one of the best in NFL history.

In 2001, Williams was hired to coach Buffalo. The Bills finished .500 just once in his three seasons, but they had the NFL’s second-ranked defense last year.

High among the traits Williams seeks are toughness, intelligence and trustworthiness. He wasn’t as concerned with getting athletic “freaks” this offseason as he was with getting the kind of players who would understand and commit to his scheme.

“Coach Gibbs really did a good job … of pushing the point to us that character, toughness and intelligence is what we’ll win with here,” Williams said. “We’re doing this for the long haul.”

Nose tackle Brandon Noble said the complexity of Williams’ scheme, which is filled with blitzes and different coverages, requires players to trust one another. Noble went so far as to describe the “type of person you can trust.”

“A guy who’s straight-forward, comes to work, works hard, keeps his mouth shut, does his job, doesn’t make excuses,” Noble said. “Those are the kinds of things they’re looking for.”

Added defensive tackle Cornelius Griffin: “The guys that are here are … not trying to beat the system or cheat the system. If he asks them to do something, they’re going to do it.”

Also on Williams’ list are several perhaps more unique traits. For example, he puts a premium on decision-making under fire. No matter how big or fast, a linebacker won’t last in Williams’ system if the player can’t make instantaneous choices.

“I want fast, quick, strong, tough people that make fast decisions,” Williams said. “It’s to the point that I tell guys all the time, ’Even if you make the wrong decision, [if] you make a fast decision, I think I can fix that.’”

Williams believes the ability to “play fast” is a natural trait that often is coached out of kids in youth leagues. He has gone so far as to give frank instructions to the coaches of his own children.

“Without trying to intimidate the little league coaches,” Williams said, “I’ve always tried to tell them, ’When you find a kid who has a motor, who does everything in the world fast — think fast, run fast, play fast — please don’t slow him down because you’re not good enough to coach him.’

“I go to little league games, and I see people say, ’Swing slow. Dribble the ball under control.’ You know what? Work on their skills to catch up with their speed. What we can’t coach as coaches is people making fast, quick, speed decisions.”

Williams’ concept of quickness extends to physical attributes, particularly on the back seven (linebackers and defensive backs). Although several choices on the defensive line were made purely for run-stopping purposes, the back seven is composed of guys who can run — rather than guys who hit the hardest or fill the most space.

“I’d rather have guys who have quick movement skills over big and less movement,” Williams said. “What I can’t coach is what their mom and dad gave them in the gene pool. Those kind of guys who are maybe a little bit smaller but faster, that’s when I think you have a chance to be effective on the field of play.”

Another trait Williams seeks is the “street” mentality. In the NFL, low-level free agents — guys who spend the offseason or perhaps even parts of a season out of football — are termed “street” free agents. It isn’t unusual for them to overcome their lack of natural talent with raw desire.

Clark, who signed on the eve of training camp, is a street guy. So is Salave’a, who spent 2002 out of football. Another is defensive end Demetric Evans, who is pulling a rare double shift by playing the spring in NFL Europe and then making tangible contributions for an NFL team in the fall. Williams wants their hunger to be a big part of his unit.

“I don’t think you can ever find a measurement of how bad somebody wants it — how much heart they have,” Williams said. “That’s a thing you only see on film. And we’ve kind of got this thing across to our defensive guys: every day is an interview. … You autograph your work every day.”

With regard to players who were cut, Williams declined to discuss many specifics. He did say, “I love Kevin [Mitchell],” adding of the departed veteran linebacker, “Time catches up with us.” As for players like Upshaw, Trotter and Ohalete, conversations around Redskin Park have revealed their attitudes didn’t mesh with that of Williams.

The Redskins, as a team, obviously remain a work in progress. The club edged a bad Chicago Bears club to reach the bye week 2-4, and Gibbs’ offense ranks among the league’s worst. But one area that isn’t an issue is defensive personnel. Gregg’s guys are essentially unquestioned.

“To be quite honest, we don’t feel like we missed on any person we brought in here,” Williams said.

Note — Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher was fined $5,000 for unnecessary roughness in last weekend’s game, an NFL spokeswoman said. Urlacher is believed to have been penalized for grabbing the face mask of running back Clinton Portis and slamming him to the ground.