NFL Week 17 Open Thread

Hopefully those interested have been enjoying bowl season. I must say I’m finding the “it is an absolute catastrophe if the Jets have to draft Justin Fields rather than Trevor Lawrence” argument even less convincing than it was last week.

Meanwhile, it’s Kotite Awards Time! Gregggggggggggg Williams fully earns his Lifetime Achievement Award:

The most amazing part of Williams’ “Engage Eight” blitz that allowed Derek Carr to throw a game-winning Raiders touchdown to Henry Ruggs in the final seconds of Week 13 not that he made such a dangerous call in a situation where a competent coach would line up six defensive backs 30 yards deep and the team’s tallest wide receiver in the end zone.

It’s that Williams calls crazycakes blitzes in prevent situations so often that Carr had an audible ready when he saw it coming.

Here’s the Next Gen Stats “trippin’ dots” version of Williams’ employment-terminating blitz. What’s … what’s Dot #41 (Matthias Farley) doing? He’s not quite blitzing. He’s not quite covering the running back. Is he spying so Carr doesn’t morph into Michael Vick and run 51 yards?

Did anyone on the Jets defense know that if they allowed a 30-yard completion over the middle of the field, time would expire and they would win? Did Williams know?

We’ll never know. Or care, really.

[…]

Bountygate should have doomed Williams to a late career as an assistant linebackers coach for some D-III college surrounded by tumbleweeds and prairie dogs. But Williams is well connected to the Old Boy Network, so he slipped onto the bottom of Mike Munchak’s outgoing Tennessee Titans staff for a year, saw that the coast was clear, and joined Jeff Fisher with the Rams.

After three years helping Fisher become a meme, Williams joined Hue Jackson after a 1-15 season for the Cleveland Browns. Williams helped Jackson achieve an 0-16 season, then surfed a tidal wave of organizational coups to the safe shores of a cushy interim head-coaching gig. That qualified Williams to become Gase’s top lieutenant for the Jets, a role he kept until he broke out the ol’ Attack Kill Destroy blitz in a Hail Mary situation.

Fisher. Jackson. Gase. Williams has mastered the art of lending his name recognition and reputation to terrible head coaches seeking a defensive coordinator who offers more credibility than quality. Williams kept his hand on the stick shift as those coaches steered for the nearest cliff.

Until a few weeks ago, he emerged from each wreck unscathed. He no doubt hoped he would survive the season in New York, watch Gase take all the blame, and land a job on Mike McCarthy’s staff or an interview with Jack Easterby. He would have gotten away with it too, if not for Gase’s indomitable self-preservation instinct.

Williams is a terrible tactician who makes up for it by not being particularly ethical. Yet he will be coordinating NFL defenses until he chooses to retire. That, dear friends, is the ultimate Lifetime Achievement Award.