Redskins fire defensive coordinator Williams

[Goldenfleece]

Redskins fire defensive coordinator Williams
by Jay Glazer
Jay Glazer is a Senior NFL Writer for FOXSports.com on MSN and also appears every week on FOX NFL Sunday as the network's NFL Insider.


Can the Redskins' search get any more screwy?

Still without a head coach, FOXSports.com has learned that Washington has fired defensive coordinator Gregg Williams.


Williams is widely considered one of the best and most aggressive defensive minds in the NFL, and his unit was the strength of the Redskins' playoff run.

Still, the highest paid defensive coordinator in the NFL, is without a job despite having one year remaining on his contract.

Williams shouldn't be unemployed for long, as the St. Louis Rams have already requested permission to interview him and the Jacksonville Jaguars have shown interest as well.

Williams was thought to be the frontrunner for the Redskins' head coach job at first, but when Vinny Cerato was promoted to executive vice president, Williams' chances were destined to fade.

Washington has been calling others in the league, asking about Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, as well as gathering information on Jim Fassel. At this point, the Redskins are saying they are content to wait until after the Super Bowl to make a hire.

[UtterBlitz]

That is weird. Why would they fire him?

I heard that he had interviewed for the Head Coach position and there was some angry words exchanged. Something about disrespecting Joe Gibbs by not telling him about putting 10 men on the field after Taylor's death. I guess he and Synder did not get along.

The skins coaching staff is falling apart....I wonder who is going to go there.

[ramsplaya16]

why have we requested permission to hure him? are they thinking of getting rid of haslett?

[ramsplaya16]

also if this involves the rams, shouldent it be in ram talk? not trying to get picky, but alot of people only read ram talk so they may want to know this

[Goldenfleece]

From what I've been reading, the players supposedly wanted Williams to be the new head coach. I suppose their front office might have decided against that based on his stint as head coach of the Bills before he took the coordinator job in Washington. But it seems like the Redskins are just blowing up a fairly successful combination to start over with an entirely different set of coaches who may or may not have worked together before.

I also think it's interesting that we've now had reports of both 'Skins coordinators possibly interviewing with the Rams. I don't know whether this is true or Glazer just got his names mixed up, but it certainly would be interesting if we weare talking about interviewing a guy who should be high on teams' lists for both coordinator and head coaching positions.

[ramsplaya16]

well do the jags have an o coordinator and a d coordinator? if they dont have an offensive coordinator than the names may just be mixed up

[Goldenfleece]

I'm pretty sure the Jaguars are just looking for a defensive coordinator right now, and I've seen other reports linking Williams to them for that position. The other articles don't mention the Rams, though, so it's hard to tell.

[ramsplaya16]

hmm weird i guess only time will tell