Jets hire Redskins target Gregg Williams to serve as team’s defensive coordinator

The New York Jets have hired Gregg Williams as their new defensive coordinator. Here’s what that means for the Redskins.

The impossible didn’t happen. Well, I guess the better way to put it is that the improbable didn’t happen. After agreeing to join the Jets’ staff, Gregg Williams ended up mulling his decision. He thought about going to the franchise that once considered hiring him as the head coach but spurned him instead for Jim Zorn. That franchise was the Redskins.

However, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Williams — once again — agreed to join the Jets. The Redskins missed out on him, and now they are stuck in an awkward situation with Greg Manusky still on the team.

It’s easy to see why Williams was a top target. He would have come to the Redskins with a great deal of experience. Additionally, he has four years of experience with the franchise, having served as their defensive coordinator from 2004-2007. During that time, he led the team to three top-10 defenses in terms of yards allowed and three top-11 scoring defenses as well.

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However, since that time, success has been fleeting for Williams. He was able to log just one top-10 overall defense in 2011 with the Saints. Additionally, he was banned from the league for some time due to his involvement with the Bountygate scandal. In recent years, Williams has led middle-of-the-pack to below-average defenses with the Rams and the Browns. So, maybe missing out on him wasn’t the worst thing that could have happened.

Williams was targeted by the Redskins to serve as a motivator. He always gets his defense to play hard and aggressive, and that’s what the Redskins were looking for. With the solid, young talent the team has in the front seven, they have a good chance to get a lot of heat on opposing quarterbacks, and Williams would have helped with that. Williams’ recent track record may not look great, but he is the type of guy that could spark a fire under his players and really get this defense to reach their full potential. But now, he will do that for the Jets.

In the wake of this decision, there are still a couple of major concerns for the Redskins. The first is the way that the ‘Skins treated Manusky. The incumbent defensive coordinator remained on the staff for the first couple weeks of the offseason before almost being unceremoniously replaced. The fact that the team essentially held him hostage wasn’t a great move on their part, and at the very least, they should have better communicated what they were doing. Instead, they have now created an uncomfortable situation should Manusky return for another season.

Another concern from this situation is the power structure within the Redskins. It doesn’t seem that Gruden had a hand in attempting to select Williams as the new coordinator. That creates a strange power dynamic in the locker room and front office, and it could give Gruden a bit of a lame-duck label. That might make it difficult for him to motivate his players, and they could quit on him part way through the season, depending on how the year goes.

Overall, this whole situation turned into a negative for the Redskins. Had they got Williams, there would have been pros and cons. But with him gone, there are now just mostly cons. We’ll see if the team ends up keeping Greg Manusky in the wake of all that has happened in the recent weeks. That is now the storyline to watch.