Watching Some Tape - Vince Williams

I know it's really hard to find time to track down game tape and sit and watch it, and as a result we forge opinions based on other people's opinions or a couple of highlight reels. I thought compiling real game film here might make it easier for people, as well as give us a thread to discuss each player. Hopefully by looking at these instead of highlight reels, we can get a more accurate picture of what these guys bring to the table. I love highlights, but only when I want to get pumped about a player, not when I want to really learn. Anyway, it's another thing to do to help last us through the summer.

I hope you find the time to watch some and let us know what you think!

Georgia Tech:
[video=youtube;iCLB9SQaEfo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCLB9SQaEfo[/video]

Virginia Tech:
[video=youtube;KJ1g5Ne5qRo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJ1g5Ne5qRo[/video]

2013 Orange Bowl vs. Northern Illinois:
[video=youtube;2pbjLIchlw0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pbjLIchlw0[/video]

 

My thoughts:

Not a burner, but faster than I expected from reports. Definitely made a couple of tackles I didn't expect him to get to (Check out 1:11 vs. Virginia Tech if you're concerned about his speed). For a "slow" guy, he's excellent at stringing out outside runs. He takes pretty good angles and tackles well. And he seems very eager to get out there, so much so that he was fooled a couple times on runs up the gut. I expected to be worried about his sideline-to-sideline speed, and I'm just not.

He handles blocks from little guys out in space very well, as well as blocks from big guys in the middle. I like the way he takes on offensive linemen. This is my favorite thing about him. Por ejemplo:

[video=youtube;n8cHcGfSXU0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8cHcGfSXU0[/video]

He definitely struggles with assignments and quickness in pass coverage. He looks like the slow guy I've been hearing about when he has to drop in coverage. The good news is that it looks to me part of his weakness there is he didn't know what he was doing, so if he got a firm grasp on the defense, his play there could really improve.

Because of his coverage issues and how long it takes to learn our defense, I don't expect to see on the field as a rookie except on special teams (which I am very excited about). I know Larry Foote sucks in coverage too, but he at least is super experienced here and knows the defense. I think in the long run Williams could definitely be a better, stronger, more explosive version of Foote. And from what I'm hearing about his competitiveness and leadership abilities, I can definitely see him as the starter next to Timmons in 2-3 years.

 

There is a part of me that wonder why we care if he is only a 2 down player.

 

I thought the same thing the other day... Either bring on a pass defending linebacker to replace him on 3rd downs like we did with Foote/Timmons in '08, or play a 3-3-5. I know 2-4-5 is our thing because linebackers are our thing, but if we need to get a LB off the field, and we have plenty of DL (Keisel, Hood, Heyward, McLendon), I don't see why not.

Is there any specific reason we have to be in a 2-4-5 nickel?

 

if you watch the landry jones video, i believe it was, he drops into coverage half decent on some of that film, so it's not like he can't. that made me feel better about that part of his game.

let's face , the days of the run on first and second down have gone by the wayside. teams are so adept at using the pass as extended handoffs a two down LB will become extinct. i think he runs pretty well actually. game speed wise anyway.