Gregg Williams is now available, and it seems that the Redskins are looking to make a change at defensive coordinator. Could the team elect to bring Williams in as a result of this?
The Cleveland Browns made a coaching decision on Wednesday that could have a slight ripple effect across the NFL. The team elected to hire their offensive coordinator, Freddie Kitchens, to be their next head coach. Kitchens got the promotion instead of interim head coach Gregg Williams. And now, Williams’ time with the Browns is done.
According to ESPN’s Dan Graziano, Williams has been relieved of his duties by the Browns as of Wednesday morning. This is a sensible decision, as the promotion of Kitchens would have made it awkward for Williams to return to the team. After all, he just served as the team’s head coach for about half the season, so putting him back into a defensive coordinator position while promoting another member of the Browns’ staff could have created some tension in the locker room.
Now that Williams is available, he is going to be a hot commodity for teams needing a defensive coordinator. And one of those squads could be the Washington Redskins.
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As of right now, the Redskins haven’t made any notable staffing changes. It appears that the team is waiting out the coach hiring cycle to ensure they don’t fire their staff without having suitable replacements available. On the surface, it may seem that they are taking it too slow, but this actually makes sense, as they want to make sure that there are actually quality candidates for them to hire before making a final decision. At the same time, one could argue that Greg Manusky and the defensive staff could be easily and effectively replaced, but we’ll save that debate for another time.
Williams would give the Redskins a quality candidate. He is a great motivator and runs a terrific defensive scheme. The numbers he had in Cleveland this year don’t adequately reflect just how well his units played. Sure, the team had some shortcomings, but every week, that unit played hard and gave the Browns a chance to win. And that’s something that has been lacking in the Redskins — particularly on defense — in the past.
It also helps that Williams has ties to Washington. He spent four years as the team’s defensive coordinator in the Joe Gibbs 2.0 era, and led the team to three, top-10 defensive finishes. Of course, it’s worth noting that the team did elect to hire Jim Zorn instead of promoting Williams following Gibbs’ retirement, but that was over a decade ago. If Williams doesn’t hold a grudge, he could be brought on as the defensive coordinator again to work with what should be a talented, young defense.
If the Redskins really want to change their culture and bring in a high-upside candidate, Williams would be the guy at defensive coordinator. There’s a reason that he was one of my top candidates to consider at head coach if the team parted with Jay Gruden, and his experience as an interim this past season could really help the Redskins. And if he’s looking for a fast-track to another interim job, that could end up being Washington, so keep an eye on that, too.
Once the Redskins start to announce their potential staffing changes, we’ll know if Williams has a shot at returning to D.C. That said, it’s definitely a reunion that the team should consider.