Williams isn't likely to lock anyone up - I just can't see him getting spammed the way Johnson was.

You can't just drop back and find Williams the way you could drop back and find Johnson. Williams is erratic, but has really good plays mixed in there. That's enough to at LEAST make QBs actually run an offense and make reads.

In those last few games with Johnson out there, the read was just "Find 13 and throw at him..."

Nelson will likely not see the field much if at all. No different than Cam Thomas, Josh Uche. Spags little comment made it pretty clear he was not part of the bring in Steven Nelson conversation.

Thomas and Uche were guys who are not as proven as Nelson has been in the league. Nelson was one of the top rated cover guys last year. Noway you put Johnson out there and see the guy get burned over and over but can't find snaps for Nelson. No chance.

Thomas and Uche are or were on rosters and have played significant snaps this year on defenses that have a better pass rush than we do. Yet they didn't make it here.....Nelson was at home sitting on the couch.
Did you see Spags comments about the signing of Nelson?

Don't care about Spags comments. Nelson isn't coming out of retirement to be on the practice squad imo. Plus as I said if woeful guys like Johnson is getting snaps, then there's noway Nelson doesn't get snaps. It would be utterly dumb.

I assume he needs to learn the d. We have complex coverage d I think

I do think it's funny that back in the Bob Sutton days everyone was furious that "Sutton's Scheme takes too long to learn!"

Now we just hand-waive it.

I'll say the same thing now that I said then -- if your system takes a year to learn, it's too damn complicated.

More likely, we use it as an excuse to justify poor performance and/or coaching intransigence. Too many coaches roll with the guys they 'know' and then use the difficulty of learning the scheme as a justification to not try anyone else out.

We have smart secondary allowing us to run more complex coverages to fool the opposite team.

How would you think that a complicated defense is without its positives?

I don't think asking a veteran like Nelson to understand zone coverages is complicated.

We don't have any super secret hybrid coverages out there. Tape is tape. What we could do that many teams couldn't in the past was use guys interchangeably to allow us to disguise what those coverages were.

The coverages weren't a bunch of wildly complicated things - it was the disguises. And those only work when you have 5 guys out there who could come down in the box or get back into coverage or show man and play zone, etc...

We don't have that. What you need to do that sort of thing isn't more experience in the system as much as it's more ability and versatility in your personnel.

With the loss of Sneed/Watson, where we've struggled is our ability to ask guys to do more than just one thing. It's why Connor gets ripped in the Nickel - he can't really do it. It's why McDuffie has struggled more being used exclusively out wide. Its why the safeties are getting exposed more.

It's not "Spags Complicated Coverage Packages" that made it go. It was his ability to utilize really versatile personnel groups.

If you don't have 'em (and we don't) then there's no amount of exotic whiteboard work that will change any of that.

And Nelson would add some ability and versatility given his history both as a boundary corner and previous years in the slot.

We need the ability more than we need the experience right now. Even if only as depth.

Hmm. I wonder..

Key games let McDuffie wear 13.

I think that’s why they didn’t draft Joey Porter Jr. They’ve been good getting solid or good play from outside boundary corners. Williams is the most recent example and he’s been solid.

Josh Williams has been quite a successful pick for a late 4th rd selection and Jaylen Watson has been a grand slam for a 7th rd selection.

If they draft a corner early I’d think he’d have to be versatile and good in the slot like McDuffie

Any new updates on Jaylen Watson?

Any chance he’s back for the divisional??

Hopefully we'll see an update within a week or two. For him to come back his practice window will need to open whilst we're on the bye I'd imagine. The positive signs have been there. Just need the sprinkles of hope to bloom into reality now.

If he returns and is close to 100%, just go ahead and print the shirts.