PRO FOOTBALL WEEKLY--COREY WILLIAMS most improved NFL Player

[b bulldog]

If he is tagged, he'll probably hold out till the third week in the preseason and than get hurt. If TT wants him back he should get a deal done before UFA begins, if not, tag him and trade him for somthing.

[ZachMN]

He knows he's being overvalued, because he's getting garbage sacks due to the good coverage downfield combined with the hustle of other players on the line, like Kampman and Jenkins. His numbers are inflated. He'll cash in, and be expected to generate those numbers himself. He doesn't have the talent to do it.

I agree with this. It sounds like Williams knows he's going to get monster offers. He's playing well, but he gets a lot of single blockers because of Kampman, KGB, Jenkins and Pickett (in the run game).

I was against letting Williams go because I assumed he would sign a fair deal a year early. It sound (according to reports) like he is not willing to do that and he wants to test his value on the open market. The way he's inflated, I'm sure he'll get $$ thrown his way, but he may not be worth it. Ted Thompson has done a great job. If he lets him go, I'll lean on the side of trust and assume it was a good move before I go nuts and look stupid a few months down the road.

Another option is to franchise him. It's 6.7 mil for one year. If he still wants to play hard ball, let him go the following year. He'll be 29 then and we'll have gotten one more year of his prime for a reasonable price. I don't think he'll want to play year to year at that age. Injuries have a funny way of happening as guys approach 30. He'd be wise to cut a long term deal. If not, just get one more year out of him and let him go when Jolly, Harrell and Muir are fully developed. As nice as it is to have him, we do have many good ones and you never know when Ted will find another. He's valuable, but he's not as valuable as the UFA market is going to dictate. I do think the franchise tag would be a good way to approach the Williams situation. ONe year at 6.7 mil is a lot better than 6 years 36 mil with 12 gauranteed.

I was hoping someone would bring this up, if we can leverage him for some draft picks, all the better because TT has shown he can find good productive players for us.....

[Bretsky]

IMO, Williams is a good DT, but he's not irreplaceable. He's not even the best DT on the team.

JH has this one right---TT should offer a him a good deal that doesn't make the Kampman or Jenkins deals look bad, and if Williams is intent on getting overpaid in free agency, let him go.

It's a well-established fact that the team's deepest position is defensive line, and Williams was what---a 6th round pick? Williams is very replaceable.

I'm curious as to who is the best DT on our team then ? I suppose Pickett; but after that Williams brings more to the table currently since he can be effective at both DT and DE. We don't currently have a guy on the DL that can just step in and offer as much as Williams if we let him go for free IMO

[Bretsky]

Perhaps my opinion is "Complete Bojive." Partial, but just watch: He'll walk away in free agency for the big money, and he'll be another Gabe Wilkins.

He knows he's being overvalued, because he's getting garbage sacks due to the good coverage downfield combined with the hustle of other players on the line, like Kampman and Jenkins. His numbers are inflated. He'll cash in, and be expected to generate those numbers himself. He doesn't have the talent to do it.

So much of success in the NFL is work ethic and attitude and the drive to succeed. I haven't seen Gabe Wilkins like Mentality in Williams.

From the sounds of it you do not agree with the scouts who have broken down Williams play this year. He also makes the players around him better. It's the strength of the unit IMO.

That being said, I'm sure he wants to cash in and with everybody having plenty of cash he'd be stupid to take a home town discount

[Bretsky]

He knows he's being overvalued, because he's getting garbage sacks due to the good coverage downfield combined with the hustle of other players on the line, like Kampman and Jenkins. His numbers are inflated. He'll cash in, and be expected to generate those numbers himself. He doesn't have the talent to do it.

I agree with this. It sounds like Williams knows he's going to get monster offers. He's playing well, but he gets a lot of single blockers because of Kampman, KGB, Jenkins and Pickett (in the run game).

I was against letting Williams go because I assumed he would sign a fair deal a year early. It sound (according to reports) like he is not willing to do that and he wants to test his value on the open market. The way he's inflated, I'm sure he'll get $$ thrown his way, but he may not be worth it. Ted Thompson has done a great job. If he lets him go, I'll lean on the side of trust and assume it was a good move before I go nuts and look stupid a few months down the road.

Another option is to franchise him. It's 6.7 mil for one year. If he still wants to play hard ball, let him go the following year. He'll be 29 then and we'll have gotten one more year of his prime for a reasonable price. I don't think he'll want to play year to year at that age. Injuries have a funny way of happening as guys approach 30. He'd be wise to cut a long term deal. If not, just get one more year out of him and let him go when Jolly, Harrell and Muir are fully developed. As nice as it is to have him, we do have many good ones and you never know when Ted will find another. He's valuable, but he's not as valuable as the UFA market is going to dictate. I do think the franchise tag would be a good way to approach the Williams situation. ONe year at 6.7 mil is a lot better than 6 years 36 mil with 12 gauranteed.

Good point on the franchise deal; if Favre returns and TT thinks GB has a true Super Bowl shot that's a good idea. We have loads of cap room so one year at that salary won't hurt

[Bretsky]

Perhaps my opinion is "Complete Bojive." Partial, but just watch: He'll walk away in free agency for the big money, and he'll be another Gabe Wilkins.

He knows he's being overvalued, because he's getting garbage sacks due to the good coverage downfield combined with the hustle of other players on the line, like Kampman and Jenkins. His numbers are inflated. He'll cash in, and be expected to generate those numbers himself. He doesn't have the talent to do it.

That I don't necessarily agree with. He's very slippery and has a knack for getting past people.

The Wilkins comparison is pushing it, I admit, because Williams has to be doing something right in order to get to the quarterback as much as he has. But I think his production is maybe 50% his own efforts and 50% a result of the group he's playing with. He's replaceable.

Funny how we always rip on the national writers for not knowing anything, until they say something good but perhaps undeserved about one of our own.

I'm a bit biased as I've always liked C Williams, but I think he's every bit as good as PFW stated

[esoxx]

Too much dicking around w/ Williams. Git-R-Done TT!

[the_idle_threat]

IMO, Williams is a good DT, but he's not irreplaceable. He's not even the best DT on the team.

JH has this one right---TT should offer a him a good deal that doesn't make the Kampman or Jenkins deals look bad, and if Williams is intent on getting overpaid in free agency, let him go.

It's a well-established fact that the team's deepest position is defensive line, and Williams was what---a 6th round pick? Williams is very replaceable.

I'm curious as to who is the best DT on our team then ? I suppose Pickett; but after that Williams brings more to the table currently since he can be effective at both DT and DE. We don't currently have a guy on the DL that can just step in and offer as much as Williams if we let him go for free IMO

IMO, Pickett is better, and Jenkins is basically the same guy, except I think he's a little better too.

I agree that we don't have a guy on the roster right now who can do the same things right now, but I think a guy can be found in the offseason, and for that matter, the depth at the position might absorb the loss without a hitch. Jolly has looked pretty good, and we don't know what we have yet in Harrell or even Daniel Muir.

[Partial]

IMO, Williams is a good DT, but he's not irreplaceable. He's not even the best DT on the team.

JH has this one right---TT should offer a him a good deal that doesn't make the Kampman or Jenkins deals look bad, and if Williams is intent on getting overpaid in free agency, let him go.

It's a well-established fact that the team's deepest position is defensive line, and Williams was what---a 6th round pick? Williams is very replaceable.

I'm curious as to who is the best DT on our team then ? I suppose Pickett; but after that Williams brings more to the table currently since he can be effective at both DT and DE. We don't currently have a guy on the DL that can just step in and offer as much as Williams if we let him go for free IMO

IMO, Pickett is better, and Jenkins is basically the same guy, except I think he's a little better too.

I agree that we don't have a guy on the roster right now who can do the same things right now, but I think a guy can be found in the offseason, and for that matter, the depth at the position might absorb the loss without a hitch. Jolly has looked pretty good, and we don't know what we have yet in Harrell or even Daniel Muir.

Hopefully we do have players in those guys and can trade Williams. That would be ideal. Letting a guy walk just seems dumb when you have so many unknowns behind him, though.

[the_idle_threat]

Perhaps my opinion is "Complete Bojive." Partial, but just watch: He'll walk away in free agency for the big money, and he'll be another Gabe Wilkins.

He knows he's being overvalued, because he's getting garbage sacks due to the good coverage downfield combined with the hustle of other players on the line, like Kampman and Jenkins. His numbers are inflated. He'll cash in, and be expected to generate those numbers himself. He doesn't have the talent to do it.

So much of success in the NFL is work ethic and attitude and the drive to succeed. I haven't seen Gabe Wilkins like Mentality in Williams.

From the sounds of it you do not agree with the scouts who have broken down Williams play this year. He also makes the players around him better. It's the strength of the unit IMO.

That being said, I'm sure he wants to cash in and with everybody having plenty of cash he'd be stupid to take a home town discount

I think Williams is a good player, but he's a little overrated. He's not a great player. He gets a lot of sacks for a DT, but I frequently see the QB chased into him by another pass rusher. I give him credit for slipping free from blockers and getting to the backfield, but I doubt he would have half as many sacks without buys like Kampman and/or Kabeer causing pressure from the edges, plus coverage downfield causing the QB to hold the ball. So is it him making everyone else better? I'd say it's the other way around.

He hustles and tries hard, but he's basically been in contract years last season (as guys typically get locked up with one year remaining) and this year (impending UFA). Two seasons ago, when he was supposed to be a big contributor, he was a disappointment and he lost playing time to Colin Cole.

I don't think scouts are necessarily wrong about him, but you have to take the article with a grain of salt. They say he's improved. What does that mean? He certainly isn't a blue chip player. There are probably 25 defensive tackles in the league that are better than him. So Williams must be a red? (Remember the scale, from best to worst, goes blue, red, purple, green, yellow.) I would think he was no worse than a purple before, maybe even a purple (+) or a red (-) after last season, so this really isn't that much of an improvement. Especially since I don't see him as any better than a red (-) now.

I think he'll be overvalued in the UFA market, and he knows it, so he's intent on testing the waters. Some team out there that needs pash rush help will look at his sack numbers and pay him like he's a difference-maker, and really he isn't one. He'll fail to recreate those numbers without as much help around him. He'll be another free agent flop, just like Gabe Wilkins was.

It's nothing personal against the guy---I don't dislike him. I just think he's overrated right now and will be overvalued as a FA. I can't blame him for recognizing that his value is high and wanting to cash in as best he can. I just hope it's not the Packers who overpay him.

[the_idle_threat]

IMO, Williams is a good DT, but he's not irreplaceable. He's not even the best DT on the team.

JH has this one right---TT should offer a him a good deal that doesn't make the Kampman or Jenkins deals look bad, and if Williams is intent on getting overpaid in free agency, let him go.

It's a well-established fact that the team's deepest position is defensive line, and Williams was what---a 6th round pick? Williams is very replaceable.

I'm curious as to who is the best DT on our team then ? I suppose Pickett; but after that Williams brings more to the table currently since he can be effective at both DT and DE. We don't currently have a guy on the DL that can just step in and offer as much as Williams if we let him go for free IMO

IMO, Pickett is better, and Jenkins is basically the same guy, except I think he's a little better too.

I agree that we don't have a guy on the roster right now who can do the same things right now, but I think a guy can be found in the offseason, and for that matter, the depth at the position might absorb the loss without a hitch. Jolly has looked pretty good, and we don't know what we have yet in Harrell or even Daniel Muir.

Hopefully we do have players in those guys and can trade Williams. That would be ideal. Letting a guy walk just seems dumb when you have so many unknowns behind him, though.

If he's intent upon testing the free agent waters, then there's not much you can do unless you franchise him, with all of the negative baggage that comes along with it.

[RashanGary]

Reports are that TT tried to get it done but Williams wants to see UFA. If that is the case, franchise him, keep him for one more year then let him go and get a compensitory pick for losing him. Williams seems content breaking off discussions early so he should be OK with the team using their power too.

[b bulldog]

Players who are tagged usually become disgrunteled and holdout until they sign near the start of the season. he is not worth $7mil for one season imo, I'd try to trade him if he can't be signed under a fair contract.

[Rastak]

Players who are tagged usually become disgrunteled and holdout until they sign near the start of the season. he is not worth $7mil for one season imo, I'd try to trade him if he can't be signed under a fair contract.

How do you trade a guy who is about to be an UFA?

[MJZiggy]

You tag him first (or at least let other teams know that's what you're gonna do).