NFL Open Thread: Gregg Williams is a Yutz Edition
[Above: created by the Sam Darnold meme generator, one of the few good things ever produced by the internet.]
Sherman’s latest helmet catch-butt fumble index, tracking which of New Jersey’s pro football teams is the most inept, is pure gold. Enjoy the tale of the Jets letting one of the best kickers in the league walk instead of matching a modest offer from Seattle, and then having a sub-sub-replacement-level kicker miss a 45-yard FG and extra point and make no kicks in a game the Jets last by one point! Pity the man who had to watch Trevor Siemian start for both his favorite college and pro teams!
But the best part is Odell Beckham Jr. humiliating both Jersey teams in one game, which followed Jets DC Greggggggg Williams — the Reggie Dunlop of Rob Ryans — repeatedly insulting a historically talented receiver:
Week 2’s Monday Night Football game somehow lumped the foolish failures of the Giants and Jets together in a maelstrom of incompetence. The evening revolved around Beckham—the once-in-a-generation wide receiver who combines ludicrous speed with perhaps the best hands in football history—and his return to the Meadowlands as a member of the visiting Cleveland Browns. Beckham used to be on the Giants, until they traded him in March because he has a personality. (It couldn’t have been because they thought a package including first- and third-round draft picks and Jabrill Peppers was worth as much as OBJ, or because they thought it was a good idea to eat $16 million in salary cap space.)
Beckham’s new team was playing the Jets, a matchup made all the more interesting by the presence of first-year Jets defensive coordinator Gregg Williams. Williams may be best known for his ability to keep getting NFL jobs despite his involvement in the Bountygate scandal and his knack for coaching defenses which top out at average. His schematic trademark is asking one safety to play 20 or more yards off the line of scrimmage, a strategy that gives his teams a last line of defense in theory but allows the opposing offense to play 11-on-10 football in practice. His presence was relevant because he served as the Browns’ interim head coach last year after Hue Jackson was fired, and because Beckham said that Williams ordered players to target him with dirty hits during a previous game.
Williams responded to OBJ by doing basically the last thing any defensive coordinator should do: He gave a fiery press conference intended to bait an opposing player. Williams hit Beckham with an “Odell Who?” suggesting that the wideout must not be dynamic if the Giants traded him away.
See what I mean about the maelstrom of incompetence? Here we have the Jets’ billion-decibel fart of a defensive coordinator pointing to the Giants’ brain-optional decision-making as hard evidence for his own correctness, seemingly unaware that it’s a bad idea for an assistant coach to spend his days trash-talking hypertalented players on upcoming opponents.
Williams’s press conference was like when Drake was dumb enough to record a diss track about Pusha T; OBJ’s performance Monday was the sports equivalent of “YOU ARE HIDING A CHILD.” Remember how I said Beckham has perhaps the best hands in football history? He made a beautiful one-handed catch on the Browns’ opening drive… Remember how I said Beckham is ludicrously fast? He burned the Jets for an 89-yard touchdown on a simple pitch-and-catch. As it turns out, having a safety stand 20 yards downfield isn’t a great last line of defense if it gives a player like Beckham an undisturbed head start.
To be Scrupulously Fair, it must be conceded that the Giants really look great now that OBJ is no longer in the locker room!
Speaking of character, as we discussed on the podcast Dave Gettleman has really put together a two year run of true SUPERGENIUS. Not only have most of individual moves been dubious-to-atrocious, they make even less sense collectively, combining win-now and rebuilding moves at random, along with some moves (most notably resigning a washed-up Eli Manning and then benching after two weeks of the same kind of performances he’s been giving for most of the past 6 years) that make no sense on any time horizon. I think tanking is massively overrated as a team building strategy, but what the Dolphins are doing is still better than whatever it is that the Giants are. But at least Gettleman commands the respect of his players!