I would argue vehemently about the idea that people have been "brainwashed" by the big, bad media to think that Roy Williams is deficient in coverage.
Even if it's clear as day to me and lot of other people who aren't coaches, even if it's been expressed to me by people who are coaches, you don't need that "brainwashing" to be aware that Williams has problems defending the pass. Why? Because Roy admitted as much himself.
"I will admit that at times, when I had one-on-one situations and you're head up on a tight end or a receiver that can go left or right, it's tough," he said. "I mean, it's just tough. Sometimes you just hope they don't throw the ball your way, because sometimes you're like, if they go inside, you don't have any help; if they go outside, you don't have any help.
"That's why corners get paid the big bucks."
Can you imagine Ed Reed saying such a thing? How about Bob Sanders? Or Troy Polamalu. I can't.
Maybe you'd say it's unfair to compare him to those guys. But his paycheck says you're well within your rights to place him up against those elite players.
All those guys, to my knowledge, are the "football is important to me" types. To be that good in the NFL, you almost have to be like that. And there's some question as to whether Roy is or not.
Plus, Roy is battling a losing game in another way here -- the bigger, slower, hard-hitting, in-the-box safety is, in many ways, a dinosaur. If you look at the safeties who are going high in the draft these days, most of them have experience as corners, and at times are the best athletes on the field. No longer is that position a place to hide slower corners. Now, it's a spot for some of the most versatile players in the game, who are forced into coverage situations and tested through offensive personnel groupings and formations.
Look, I'm not saying Roy isn't salvageable as a player. But I would worry that he's not, based on his grousing to teammates about the scheme (the best safeties are versatile enough to play in any scheme), his stated lost confidence in himself, his apparent separation from his teammates and the importance football might hold in his life.
