Cleveland Browns Greedy Williams should be better in year two with Joe Woods as defensive coordinator.
LSU product Greedy Williams came to the Cleveland Browns via the second round of the 2019 NFL draft. Most felt the talent possessed by the young corner was worth a first-round pick, but six other cornerbacks would be taken before the Browns grabbed Williams at No. 46 overall.
With Denzel Ward out of Ohio State making a splash his rookie season, and then Williams falling into their lap, the Browns were excited for the future at cornerback.
Now they are hopeful a new coordinator can turn Williams back into the star corner they thought they were drafting.
Greedy Williams rookie season
Williams had an up and down rookie season as he burst out of the gate with some of the highest Pro Football Reference (subscription required) grades for a rookie corner in the NFL.
#Browns Greedy Williams is off to a strong start in his rookie year. His Defensive and Coverage grades from last week (86.2 / 87.5) ranked him 3rd among 100 qualifying CBs.
— PFF CLE Browns (@PFF_Browns) September 18, 2019
Through 2 wks, he leads all rookie CBs in Defensive, Coverage, Run Defense, and Tackling grades.
Williams would then find himself on the sidelines dealing with a hamstring injury for the next four games. After coming back in Week 7, Williams struggled to find his early-season form and would finish the year with a defensive grade of 54.6 from PFF, placing as the second-lowest graded defender on the roster.
Even with the low grade, the rookie corner did show some signs that he has what it takes to get better. First, Williams disproved the notion he is unwilling to tackle by having an aggressive attitude in the run game. That would end up the highest graded part of his game with a run grade of 65.4. Williams’s willingness in the run game is a good sign for the future, though he still has improvement to make.
The 14 missed tackles in 2019 will attest to that. The big question is, can he get back to excelling at what got him drafted so high in the first place? His coverage ability.
Part of Williams’s coverage issues stems from the NFL learning curve. The other part is that Steve Wilks’s defense played a lot of zone coverages that do not cater to the talented corners skill set. Even with his struggles during the season, Williams did not allow a touchdown.
He was targeted 62 times as a rookie giving up a completion rate of 61.3 percent and a quarterback rating of 84.9 per Pro Football Reference. While not stellar numbers, aside from zero touchdowns given up, they do show that Williams can play in this league. Williams still has all the tools that he had when drafted and now has a chance to show what he can do under new defensive coordinator Joe Woods.
Joe Woods could be just what Williams needs.
Joe Woods comes to Cleveland with a stellar reputation as a secondary coach and rising star as a defensive coordinator. He has already made it clear that he is molding a defense that takes advantage of what his players do best. Denzel Ward and Williams both came out of college as great press man coverage corners with Ward proving that in his Pro Bowl rookie season.
Now Williams will have the chance to do the same if Woods is true to his word. He does have a history of using a significant amount of man coverage while the defensive coordinator of the Denver Broncos, so it is not going out on a limb to expect him to do the same in Cleveland.
While Greedy Williams and Denzel Ward may not be Chris Harris Jr. and Aqib Talib yet they certainly have a ton of talent and now a coach that should tap into it. Ward had a solid 2019 and should get back to his pro bowl form in 2020. The Browns need Greedy Williams to shine in 2020 if they want to be an elite defense.
With Woods now in place, this might just be the perfect scheme to get the star corner they thought they were getting last season.