When news broke Friday about the Browns making a change at the defensive coordinator spot, many were surprised by it as Ray Horton was removed for the second time with the organization from the position.
The team has brought in Gregg Williams to be the teams’ new leader of the defense, and Sunday coach Hue Jackson spoke to the media about the move.
“This is really about my vision. It is about what I am trying to create here in Cleveland and how I see it and what I think it is going to take for us to get there,” Jackson said.
“This isn’t just Ray. I know it looks like that. I know it looks like he gets caught up in it and however you guys want to say that, but it is not about that. It is bigger to me than that.”
The Browns defense ranked 31st overall this season, allowing 392.4 yards per game. They were 30th in the league allowing 28.3 points per game, numbers that are not going to win many games for any franchise.
Jackson was asked if Horton was basically the scapegoat for a team that won just one game this season, more so since no other coach has yet to be let go.
“I am disappointed that everybody is making it that way. If anybody, the finger is pointed back at me,” Jackson said.
“It is not pointed at Ray. At the end of the day, the whole buck stops with me. I get it. I know what it looks like and what the perception is, but that is not what it is. This is my decision. This is through my time of thinking through what I think is going to be best for us moving forward for our football team and where I want to take it and what I thought we needed to do to get there.”
Williams joins the Browns after being the Los Angeles Rams’ defensive coordinator, but after head coach Jeff Fisher was let go during the season, he along with other Rams coaches were allowed to move on from the team.
The 58-year-old is probably best known for his involvement with “Bountygate,” as the defensive coordinator of the New Orleans Saints, he was accused of putting bounties on opposing players during his time there.
He brings an attacking style of defense to a Browns team that simply couldn’t match up with other offenses in 2016.
“His system gives us a chance, and what he has done is adapt many different schemes that he has been a part of and that he knows to the talent that is there,” Jackson said
“We all know we are going to have an opportunity to improve our football team as we move forward through free agency and the draft, and I think that is very important. He is going to bring us the type of defense that I am looking for as we move forward here.”
Jackson did speak about “Bountygate,” and he said he and Williams have spoken about it to make sure that those types of illegal issues don’t come to the Browns culture.
“Oh, we have had conversations about it, but I think that is behind him,” Jackson said.
“Obviously, he has already paid the price for that. I think that is behind him as well. We will not be having a Bountygate situation in Cleveland. We are here to try to do the best job we can of winning football games and putting the best football team that we can out on the football field.”
For now, Jackson didn’t give a final answer on if any other changes were coming to the staff in anyway.
“I am still looking at everything to be very honest with you. I am not done [evaluating],” Jackson said.
“This is a thorough evaluation of our staff. I am going to do this brick by brick in how we have to do this and put this thing together.”
Jajoe
January 8, 2017 at 8:19 pm
It is about time Browns brought a tougher defensive coach to lead the young talent players. Now they need few top draftees to complete the defensive team.