The reason to play Mario Williams at outside linebacker is he isn’t a defensive end in a 3-4. But he isn’t an outside linebacker either. Williams is a 4-3 defensive end. Or at least he used to be. And still should be.
The Texans’ switch to a 3-4 defense is puzzling on a number of levels, but it’s most puzzling because Williams is a 4-3 player. If the Texans, or any other 3-4 team were looking at Williams in the draft, they’d say he’s not a fit for our defense. Yet he unquestionably is one of the best players in the NFL. So why risk diminishing him?
And Williams isn’t the only player the Texas could either diminish or make obsolete by changing schemes. Middle linebacker DeMeco Ryans becomes an inside linebacker. Outside linebacker Brian Cushing, who was more effective outside than inside at Southern Cal, moves inside. Those position switches likely will make the Texans’ next best defenders less effective.
Then there are these linemen – Amobi Okoye, Antonio Smith, Shaun Cody, Earl Mitchell, Damione Lewis, Jarvis Green. There are some good players here, but not for a 3-4. There are scouts from 4-3 teams who are looking at these players and licking their chops, knowing some of them are going to be cut.
“I never would have screwed with a 3-4,” said one front office man who has been part of teams that have run both fronts. “They have a lot invested in 4-3 personnel, and it’s not set up to transition to a 3-4.”
In any defense, Williams probably still would be productive and problematical for opponents. He’s too good not to be. But the questions are can he be as effective at this scheme as he was in the previous one, and can the Texans defense be as effective?
I called Charley Casserly, the man who drafted Williams and Ryans, to ask him what he thought about all of this. “I have a lot of respect for Wade Phillips,” said Casserly, who now is an analyst for CBS Sports and NFL Network. “He has a good feel for talent and how to use it. However I think their best players are Mario Williams and DeMeco Ryans. Mario has been to the Pro Bowl as a 4-3 defensive end and DeMeco Ryans has been to the Pro Bowl as a middle linebacker. You’re asking both to play new positions. It would have made more sense to me to stay in a 4-3 defense.”
Williams told ace Texans reporter John McClain he played at 290 pounds last year. There is no prototype of an outside linebacker who weighed that much. The Texans have pointed to DeMarcus Ware as an outside linebacker Williams can be like. But Ware weighs about 30 pounds less.
“Ware is a rush guy,” Casserly said. “He rarely drops. Mario will be the same way. Ware is more athletic as a drop guy. He is a more fluid athlete. I didn’t think Mario would be very good in drops.”
The Texans’ new outside linebacker coach is Reggie Herring, who was Ware’s coach in Dallas and also was Williams’ defensive coordinator at North Carolina State. If anyone should understand how the players are similar or dissimilar, it is Herring.
The plan is for Williams to rush about 95 percent of the time, and Texans coach Gary Kubiak seems open to moving Williams back to defensive end if he fizzles at linebacker. But if Williams is playing linebacker, he is going to have to drop maybe eight snaps a game. Those eight snaps could easily turn wins into losses.
There is some precedent for players like Williams to be used as ends in 3-4 fronts. Bruce Smith and Richard Seymour would be the prototypes. Phillips’ original plan, before the team drafted J.J. Watt and Brooks Reed, was to keep Williams at end. But playing Williams at end in a three man front would be turning a great pass rusher into a run defender. How much sense does that make?
The advantage in making Williams a linebacker is there is a potential to create blocking mismatches. “They will walk him out of the slot,” said one offensive line coach who has prepared protection schemes against Williams many times. “They’ll try to get him matched up on backs, tight ends. But there are ways to keep a big guy on him. You fan them out.”
Offenses will try to force Williams to drop. The Texans will counter by moving him to the other side of the formation. But that will mean another linebacker, likely Reed, will have to drop and cover a tight end or back. That’s not an appealing option for the Texans either.
The great coaches adjust their systems to fit their talent. That’s what Phillips needs to do with a group of talented defenders who were acquired to fit another system.
