Tennesee Titans Should Stay Away From Gregg Williams as Head Coach

With Jeff Fisher leaving Tennessee, there are a couple names being kicked around when the topic of the Titans’ next head coach comes up. A popular name right now, outside of offensive line coach Mike Munchak, is New Orleans Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams.

If this is the direction Bud Adams goes, it might be time to put the old man in a home.

I just don’t understand the thinking. Why in the world would any team think Williams will be a better head coach this time around? I mean sure it happened with Bill Belichick, but I think we can all appreciate that’s the exception and not the rule.

During his time as the Buffalo Bills head coach, he looked inept in every way imaginable. The team was soft, his decision-making was overly conservative and made no sense half the time, and he couldn’t get them to win a thing. After a 17-31 record in three seasons as the guy calling the shots, he was fired in 2003 and has been an up-and-down defensive coordinator since then.

But after the Saints rode a strong showing from their defense to a Super Bowl win in 2009, the head coaching chatter was inevitable and, quite frankly, I’m actually surprised it hasn’t been louder.

As we’ve seen, being a good defensive coordinator (and, as mentioned, he’s had an up-and-down career) does not translate into being a successful head coach. Dick LeBeau is a guy who could be considered for the Hall of Fame if they actually put assistant coaches in Canton, and even he was a train-wreck as a head coach.

Buddy Ryan is another guy we can point to. He was a great defensive coordinator — engineered the 1985 Chicago Bears defense — but was actually to much of a defensive guy to be a great head coach. He won some games in Philadelphia, but never won a single playoff game and then bombed in Arizona.

Ryan’s failures can probably be traced to the fact that, like Williams and LeBeau, he had no interest in offense. A head coach, while he can certainly specialize in one or the other and often times does, must have some knowledge of both sides of the ball if he’s going to bring the team together properly.

Ryan couldn’t do it, LeBeau couldn’t do it, and Williams couldn’t do it. If he’s given a second chance, odds are the results would be eerily similar to his first go-round.