He’s known as one of the smartest players on the roster, but Kyle Williams’ on field acumen is at another level. That’s why Buffalo’s defensive staff entrusts him with making all the pass rush calls on the field on obvious passing downs.
Buffalo Bills Insider Chris Brown provides the details. Here is his report:
Over the past 11 years Kyle Williams has been many things for the Buffalo Bills. He’s been dependable, a leader, a motivator, productive and for a long time he has been revered in Buffalo’s locker room. What some may not know about Williams, as he gets set to play in his 150th career game for Buffalo on Saturday, is the responsibility he has when he’s on the field.
“He’s the reason we’re leading the league in sacks (percentage),” said head coach Rex Ryan. “He’s a coach on the field. He only played five games last year. This guy is phenomenal. We give him a ton of responsibility and the guy is outstanding. He is unusual.”
Blessed with an astute mind for diagnosing the plans of an opposing offense and a special brand of film study, Kyle Williams is given the responsibility of calling the pressure fronts for Buffalo’s defense. The Bills defensive staff entrusts Williams to put the men up front in the best position to get effective pressure on the quarterback in obvious passing situations.
“This is probably the first team I’ve been on where a D-line coach allows a player to dial up the games,” said Lorenzo Alexander. “This is the first team I’ve been on with a guy like Kyle Williams too. Eleven years in, a student of the game and understands the protections.”
Williams’ freedom to call the end-stunt games of the defensive linemen and linebackers up front has been going on for several seasons. His success rate is what convinces the different coaching staffs that have come through Buffalo to let him run with it.
“He knows what’s coming and we lean on him for that because we know he’s not going to put us in a bad spot. Is he 100 percent? No, but is he 90 percent? Yeah,” said Corbin Bryant, who suffered a season-ending shoulder injury. “It just goes to show you how smart he is. He really studies the film and has a great idea of what’s going on. That comes with wisdom. He’s been in the league for so long that he’s seen every protection. He’s seen everything.”
“For the most part they know I understand the protections,” said Williams of the defensive staff. “I know what we’re getting. I know where the weak spot is and they’ve entrusted me to see it, process that information and communicate clearly while we’re on the field and be able to execute it. If you’re trying to get it from the sideline and also have guys aware of the down and distance and the call, it can be a lot slower and less efficient.”
Having the calls coming from a player on the field often leads to better calls on the whole, and is something Williams’ teammates clearly prefer.
“When it comes to third down you know how our crowd is at home. It’s hard to look to the sideline in the midst of all that noise and see coaches doing signals,” Bryant said. “So on the field it’s easier to see how the offense sets up and then we’ll look to Kyle and see what he wants to do. And he’ll say, ‘Let’s run this, or let’s run that.’”
“It works great,” he said. “Sometimes your D-line coach calls something before they even break the huddle and it’s not conducive to getting to the quarterback or being successful. Kyle is out there listening to calls and what they’re saying. You get the flow of the game and how they’re blocking you. How guys are winning and player to player is always better than coming from coach to player, especially in this league because we’re the ones who are playing the game.”
Williams’ calls have been instrumental in Alexander’s renaissance season. The outside linebacker has more sacks this season (11.5) than in his previous nine NFL seasons combined, earning Pro Bowl recognition as a result.
“He’s unselfish so he’s not dialing up stuff for himself,” Alexander said of Williams. “He’s dialing up stuff that’s best for the team. He’s allowed me to get a lot of sacks and really put pressure on the quarterback. He does a great job with that stuff.”
Williams’ main aim is to manipulate the offense’s protection scheme. If he believes it’s going to slide one way to address a perceived weakness he might set a pre-snap look to get the opposing quarterback to change it. Williams has the ability to use just about any of his teammates in the front seven to influence what the offense is trying to do.
“I’ll be able to use different guys when I know that maybe they’ve got the back in coverage or they’re a low zone dropper, I can use them to manipulate protection to try to get something open for someone on the opposite side,” Williams said. “Or if we’re blitzing from one side, maybe I’ll use the guys on the other side to bring them with me and change the protection to get a free runner somewhere. Just a lot of different stuff to manipulate their protection scheme to get us in the most advantageous situation as possible.”
Missing Williams in the lineup for 10 games last season hurt Buffalo’s sack production. Their 21 sacks in 2015 was the third lowest total in team history. This season the Bills pass rush has rebounded nicely. Buffalo has the second-highest sack total in the league with 38 and ranks first in sacks per play (7.8%).
“I’ve never had a player with this much awareness,” said Ryan. “I’ve had a lot of really good ones that you trust fully, but this is guy where you just know he’s going to handle it.”
“A lot of guys watch film and understand for themselves, but to see the whole picture. I’ve only been around a couple of guys in my career like that,” said Alexander. “He’s a player that you trust. Some of the stuff I don’t even know how he sets it up. But all the great ones like him they have a method to their madness in how they study film. They really break it down and you can count on the information they’re bringing to you.
“He’s very smart and understands football in terms of the total package, not just calling games, but the run game, the pass game, what the quarterback likes to do. He sees it all and does a great job with it.”