Linebacker Vince Williams’ role is about to expand. With Mark Barron now part of the L.A. Rams, you’ll see Williams playing next to second-year linebacker Devin Bush more often than not.
With rookie pressures behind him and a solid season under his belt, Bush can focus on making that second-year jump. “Devin is making tremendous strides,” said Williams in a Wednesday press conference. Williams said that he is trying to lead by example in terms of communicating with Bush.
“I tell Devin all the time that middle linebackers are vocal communicators in
the middle of the field. The more you make calls, the more comfortable you get with it, the more people get confidence in you making those calls. He is just taking it in stride, watching me, seeing how I do things and learning.”
When defensive coordinator Keith Butler was asked why he felt confident in Williams having a more prominent role this year, Butler said: “Because [Williams] is a great communicator. A lot of times, as we went back and looked at our film and kind of graded ourselves, we felt like our communication—if anything went wrong with our defenses, it was more on our communication and really our secondary communication. There’s primary and secondary communication, which starts at the first part of the play. As the play starts to play out a little bit, then, sometimes, you have to make adjustments.”
“Vince is really good at doing that for us and getting the calls to the guys, making sure that they know that we are all on the same page,” continued Butler. “That’s big for us in terms of Vince Williams. That’s what he brings to the table. He’s very physical. We feel like if we get him one-on-one with a back, he’s going to win that. We feel like he’s a good rusher on the passer. We think he can cover, maybe not as good as Devin, but he does a sophisticated job for us. We will see when we get to different personnel groups in terms of what offenses give us and stuff like that how we will use our personnel.”
Considering the challenges that come with being a rookie in the NFL, Bush had himself a nice season.
He managed two interceptions, a forced fumble and four passes defended. He scored a touchdown off one of his four fumbles recovered and added 109 tackles.
Williams also noted that Bush is getting to Heinz Field at a consistent time daily. While that may seem like a small detail, a strong work ethic speaks volumes at game time.
“…he has a nice little system that he is working with,” said Williams. “He comes in the building at a consistent time every day. Those are things that you don’t really see from a young guy that doesn’t really have a formula for success. But I am starting to see that he is starting to develop that, and I think he is going to get better with it.”
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