Can Gregg Williams Adjust His Scheme to Fit with Jeff Fisher's St. Louis Rams?

New Orleans Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams is expected to join Jeff Fisher's new coaching staff and become the defensive coordinator of the St. Louis Rams. Williams will bring a lot of optimism to most Rams fans as the excitement around the new regime builds.

Fans will be excited to see Williams in town because he molded the New Orleans Saints' championship defense of the 2009-2010 season. Even though the Saints were an offensive team, Williams' defense was vital throughout the playoffs and made the marquee play in the Super Bowl with Tracey Porter's pick-six against Peyton Manning.

Realistically, though, Williams' Saints defense had very different pieces than the Rams' current base.

Pressure is a key aspect of the defense that Williams ran in New Orleans. His aggressive play-calling perfectly played to the strengths of the Louisiana-based team's depth chart.

The Saints do not, nor have they in recent times, had overwhelming pass-rushers. Will Smith is, and has been, their best individual pass-rusher, but even he wouldn't ever have commanded a double-team from opposing offenses.

The Saints, under Williams, instead relied on their quality coverage on the back-end while the pressure was created with blitzing and deception.

The Rams do not have the quality cover corners or opportunistic safeties that excelled for Williams previously. The Rams' greatest strength defensively, even taking into account the injuries to their secondary last season, is their pass-rushers upfront.

Chris Long may not be totally living up to his draft position, but he has shown an ability to get to the quarterback in recent years. Long, lined up at left end, is a brutal matchup for most NFL tackles. His greatest effect on the Rams' defense, from a personnel point of view, is taking the pressure off the defense to blitz.

And Long is not the only quality pass-rusher in the Rams' front seven.

James Hall has been a fine complement to Long in recent years, but he may now retire. If he doesn't, Robert Quinn showed a lot of flashes as a rookie, proving that he has the potential to repeatedly get penetration at the professional level.

With Quinn and Long on the outside, offenses will have two dynamic pass-rushers to try to prevent from getting in the backfield, even when the Rams play coverage. Blitzing, as aggressively as Williams does, essentially makes Long or Quinn just another defensive end.

Sending extra pass-rushers puts pressure on the team's secondary as well as the blitzer who is coming free to get to the quarterback.

There is no point in having two ends who excel at beating tackles if you are just going to send extra blitzers. The Rams may have lost 10 cornerbacks during last season, and while Quintin Mikell could prove to be the perfect safety to play in Williams' scheme as a better Roman Harper, their starting cornerbacks from last year aren't good enough to emulate what the Saints' cover men did for Williams' defense.

Unless Williams is going to completely adapt his scheme—doubtful—to the Rams' strengths, or if the Rams are looking to totally overhaul their defensive identity, then Williams is a bad fit for the St. Louis Rams' defense.

The Rams do have talented pieces on defense to work with. Ron Bartell, Mikell, James Laurinaitis, Quinn and Long are all impact players,—when healthy—but it's unlikely Williams will get the best out of each of those players in 2012.

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