Gregg Williams will have another tall order to fill in his second season as Jets defensive coordinator.

Not only did the team trade All-Pro safety Jamal Adams, but star inside linebacker C.J. Mosley also opted out of the 2020 season because of concerns related to the coronavirus pandemic. Williams will once again work with less talent than initially expected only a year after playing most of the season without Mosley and Avery Williamson.

But Williams did well with a limited roster last year. The Jets finished second in run defense and seventh in yards allowed. They went on a 7-2 run at the end of the 2019 season that was largely fueled by the defense. 

Williamson, for one, isn’t worried about Williams’ ability to run the defense without his best players. Even as he recovers from his ACL injury, Williamson is confident the defense will perform.

“I hate to see Jamal go and C.J. opt-out, but at the end of the day we’ve still got some talented guys that play those positions,” Williamson said Wednesday. “I feel like Gregg Williams is going to put guys in good positions. He’s just going to coach the hell out of them.”

Adam Gase agreed with the idea that Williams’ coaching won’t falter. He credits Williams’ ability to scheme around a player’s strength and versatility, as well as his ability to create multiple looks on defense.

“The beauty part about what Gregg does on defense is, with the amount of personnel groupings he has, he has a ton of flexibility to give a lot of guys playing time,” Gase said. “I think that will be beneficial to us.”

Williams’ creativity will be his biggest asset this year.  His skill as a coach will certainly help, but so will his past experience coaching defenses that lost talented players. Williams has been an NFL coach or coordinator for 22 years, and he’s had to work with less before.

With that in mind, we thought it would be wise to look back at four other times Williams lost his best defensive players for an extended period of time.

Browns LB Christian Kirksey, 2018

Kirksey missed nine games for the Brown in 2018 and was placed on injured reserve for the final six games with a hamstring injury. Williams, recently promoted from defensive coordinator to interim head coach, was now without one of his leading tacklers. 

Kirksey had tallied the most tackles by a Browns player over the previous two seasons, but Williams coached around the loss and the Browns actually played well at the end of the season. They went 4-2 behind an energized offense, though their defense actually allowed more points during that stretch than during the 10 weeks before.