Joshua Williams: ‘Every morning, Spags has new stuff’

On Wednesday, we realized that the New York Jets and AFC West rival Las Vegas Raiders have requested to interview Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo for his or her vacant head teaching positions. The Jacksonville Jaguars additionally introduced curiosity in Spagnuolo on Thursday.

On Wednesday’s episode of the Up and Adams Present on FANDUEL TV, cornerback Joshua Williams provided some perception as to why Spagnuolo could be so coveted.

“I think every morning, Spags has new stuff,” Williams defined. “He can be an excellent common – no humorous stuff. He’s actually only a marvel. He can give you all these various kinds of pressures [and] all these various kinds of zone drops. All of that’s simply stuff to form of confuse the quarterback. A whole lot of occasions, guys get in a protection they usually form of do the identical factor 12 months in, 12 months out. That’s good since you nonetheless get to excellent what you’re doing.

“But in this system, I think one of the benefits for us is you have different guys doing different things all the time. We have corners who blitz. We have corners who drop to a half. We have corners playing man-to-man. We have corners playing off man [and] off zone. There’s so many different types of defense we run, and I feel like that’s one of the benefits that Coach Spags brings.”

Picture by Jason Hanna/Getty Pictures

Williams benefited from Spagnuolo’s creativity through the Chiefs’ Week 16 victory over the Houston Texans. Down 27-19 (the sport’s eventual last rating), the Texans confronted third-and-11 from their very own 25 late within the fourth quarter. Williams dropped quarterback CJ Stroud for a 12-yard sack on a superbly timed blitz.

The Texans would subsequently punt — and didn’t see one other possession.

“This was the last drive they ended up going out,” Williams recalled. “The Texans had been having an excellent recreation. I imagine initially I knew I used to be occurring a blitz. Once I walked by, the security already gave me the decision. I knew I used to be going. Actually, the one arduous half for me was making an attempt to cover the blitz – disguise it so the deal with didn’t decide me up and the [running] again didn’t come throughout.

“Once I felt like I timed up the snap perfectly – and nobody rotated over – it was just finishing a layup from there. Shout out to Spags for dialing it up. He’s always bringing the pressure and calling up the heat. He got me a nice little sack, and we ended the game right there on defense.”

After all, Spagnuolo’s brilliantly designed performs imply nothing with out the gamers executing on the sphere. Williams took the chance to reward security Justin Reid’s presence in serving to the imaginative and prescient come by way of and elevating the efficiency of the youthful gamers round him.

“You talk about his physical attributes,” he mentioned of his teammate. “Even his psychological capability – Stanford man, actual sensible. I don’t need to gasoline him up an excessive amount of, he would possibly assume he’s smarter than me. He actually is sort of a second coach on the protection. Together with simply the motivation he brings…on the identical time, he relates with the gamers. He relates with the youthful guys. You will have him and Jaden Hicks getting time in after apply.

“Him and [Bryan Cook] are always cooking stuff up and just making sure they’re on the same page. He’s the biggest glue guy, but not just a glue guy. He goes in and contributes. He gets the defense together and goes out and makes plays…We’ve got so many pieces around him. I feel like that’s why a lot of things have been going right for this defense in the late half of the season.”

Picture by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Pictures

Williams recalled probably his largest playoff efficiency because the Chiefs put together to start their playoff journey that hopefully ends because the NFL’s first “three-peat” Tremendous Bowl champion. Within the 2022 AFC Championship recreation in opposition to the Cincinnati Bengals, throughout his rookie season, beginning cornerback L’Jarius Sneed left the sport with a concussion within the first quarter. With fellow rookie cornerbacks Trent McDuffie and Jaylen Watson already within the beginning lineup, Williams was unexpectedly compelled into motion in opposition to one of many league’s most prolific passing offenses.

Williams rose to the event because the Chiefs received 23-20, even grabbing a key interception after fellow rookie Cook dinner tipped a move up.

“It was cold out, and I think Sneed had gotten hurt the second drive of the game,” he remarked of the sport. “The entire recreation, I simply knew, I used to be like ‘I’m going to should play so much as we speak.’ The second drive comes, and he will get injured, and I are available. At one level…it was me, Trent, Jaylen Watson, and Bryan Cook dinner. The one vet within the secondary was Justin Reid as a result of Juan Thornhill had gotten harm.

“So we’re out there, and the coaches all through the game are trying to make sure we’re locked in. I honestly feel like as a unit, that was the best game we played. Trent had some PBUs. B-Cook had a PBU to tip it up to me and I got the pick. Jaylen Watson got a pick. When I look back on my rookie year, that’s probably one of the most impactful games. I feel like that’s where I grew the most, especially going into that Super Bowl.”