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New Orleans Saints Defensive Coordinator Gregg Williams

Do you think your defense has earned a reputation for its physical play?

“I would hope so. It was that way when I was in Tennessee, it was that way when I was in Buffalo, and it was that way when I was in Washington and Jacksonville. The teams that are the most respected are the ones that are the most physical. Every single week, we go out there wanting to win the physical battle. When you see teams run screens or gadgets or things like draws, those are things that are compliments to the defense because they physically can’t just point at you and say we’re going to run the ball right down your throat or we’re going to pass protect any way we want to so we have to do some things that are going to slow you down and change your mentality of being so physical. Sometimes it works against you when you play as hard as we do. I learned from some pretty good people that you don’t ever slow our guys down and what you do is you actually speed them up, recognize and speed them up.”

Have you gotten what you’ve wanted out of Aubrayo Franklin, Sedrick Ellis, and Shaun Rogers in the middle?

“I think what you see us doing is we’re trying to rotate as many guys as we can in, not just in that position area, but we’re trying to be very observant in the number of snaps we have at the corner position, taking hits off of those guys. You have a luxury when you have three good corners. We’re doing that at the linebacker position with how we’re rotating those guys through there. I think one of the things we did a good job of in training camp, I probably didn’t do a very good job of playing Will Smith too much last year. He played very well, but he’s playing lights out now. The fact that he had a couple of games that he wasn’t around here, he’s real fresh but we still have to monitor all those steps and how we rotate those inside three guys or inside four guys is that we take into a game that’s critical on down the road. People don’t realize the collisions that those guys take, your mind keeps telling you take those shots but then the body breaks down towards the end of the year. We’re very cognizant of the fact that we’re trying to rotate guys in and they’ve played pretty solid. A couple times we’ve given up a couple runs in there when we’re actually playing a pass where they’re pass rushing and you just have to get him down. You don’t like that gain but you have to get him down.”

Can you talk about the growth of Patrick Robinson?

“I’m so proud of him and I said that during training camp. I’m so proud of how far he’s come on from last year. I tease him about it, I didn’t lose sleep over it but I was pretty hard on him last year as I have been on all rookies that I’ve had a chance to draft. If you’ve taken a look at especially our defensive backfield where I’ve gone place to place to place, I’ve had a chance to draft a lot of number one draft choices in the defensive backfield and I’ve been the same way with all of them. It’s my responsibility and it’s our responsibility to make an impression nd make sure they’re a real pro. Usually a lot of those guys have just been better athletes than every single person they’ve had a chance to play against. It’s not that way anymore. You come into the National Football League with the best athletes in the world at the receiver position. You better be ready at a corner and as a defensive back. A lot of that goes back to your study, your preparations, your body language, your effort, your intensity, your focus, andyour attention to detail, and he was lacking in some of that last year. I can’t tell you how proud not only me, but his teammates. To see to repartee and the camaraderie those guys have this year because he earned it. It wasn’t handed to him by me. He earned the respect and I’m real pleased with how far he’s come. I think he can be even better. There will be another significant jump you’ll see with him. Things are starting to slow down for him now. I think you’ll see even another big jump in his play.”

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Payton and Williams' Friday Pressers

Euphoria

When they stop trying to be punks and decide to play team inspired defense then I'll get excited and give a crap what he has to say.

dizzle88

When I see us keep another team under 20 points, i'll be more impressed with the Defense, at the minute....underwelmed by a mile, thought we were going to be a top 5 D to be fair

homerj07

When they start tacklig - then I will be impressed