Falcons Cut Jimmy Williams

[AnakinJoe]

Falcons cut Jimmy Williams

Former top draft choice released after two seasons

By STEVE WYCHE

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on: 06/17/08

The Falcons released safety Jimmy Williams Tuesday morning, parting with their top pick of the 2006 NFL Draft and, all but technically clearing the roster once stocked with players from Virginia Tech.

"It's a football decision," coach Mike Smith said. "It's a decision we made. We've been evaluating."

Though Williams once was perceived as an impact player, he never found his way with the Falcons. Things further declined this offseason when Williams reported to workouts weighing more than 230 pounds. He later missed two of three days of a voluntary minicamp.

From that point, Williams' role diminished more and more until he was let go just two years into his career.

Williams recorded 39 tackles in two seasons, which were spent mainly playing special teams.

Whatever grade you give Billy knight as GM of the Hawks, I can't imagine that Rich McKay's grade is much better with the Falcons. Whether you're evaluating his drafts, trades or coaching hires, dude was simply a disaster for Arthur Blank. Jimmy Williams was a bust from the start and we traded up to pick him a few years ago.

[frosgrim]

LOL- well more like a woeful chuckle.

So much for the next great athletic VT star.

The McKey era of players is turning over quickly. Just how many starters did McKey contribute through drafts?

What I can tell:

Boley (good-great find, mid rounds)

Blalock (starter by default, 2nd round pick)*

Jam Anderson (by default, #8 pick over the DT from Louisville)*

Roddy (looks like a good pick, 1st round pick)

Mike Jenkins? (1st round so-so player)

L. Robinson (good mid-round pick)*

Chris Houston (good mid-round pick)*

Did I miss someone?

*= rookies last year so its hard to judge their full NFL talent, good or bad.

By default means that the player started becuase there was nothing else to play in front of him.

Just to reiterate, McKey did not maximize the Falcons' early round picks, but did a descent job in the mid rounds. For McKey to really have left the franchise in good shape Jam is going to have to have a break out year and the defualt young starters in Blalock, Houston and Robinson all will have to continue to build on what they showed last season.

[coachx]

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What I can tell:

Boley (good-great find, mid rounds)

Blalock (starter by default, 2nd round pick)*

Jam Anderson (by default, #8 pick over the DT from Louisville)*

Roddy (looks like a good pick, 1st round pick)

Mike Jenkins? (1st round so-so player)

L. Robinson (good mid-round pick)*

Chris Houston (good mid-round pick)*

Did I miss someone?

He picked Deangelo Hall who has gone to 2 pro-bowls but has issues. Hall then was traded by the new GM for the #2 pick in the 2nd round which was packaged with more picks for pick #21 in the 1st round that was used for Sam Baker. Man, I hope Baker plays out to be a legit LT. If so he is a steal at #21.

Did McKay draft TJ Ducket ? He was a 1st round pick but may have been the season before McKay started.

Did McKay draft Patrick Kearney or was that before his time ?

McKay also selected Norwood in the 2nd round which was a prtetty solid pick.

He bombed on some middle round picks like Will Overstreet in the 3rd round but those are alwayse hit and miss and hit on several like Norwood, Boley, and even D. Williams is a solid LB.

McKay is ctiticized for "reaching" in the 1st round to provide M. Vick with some sold recievers. I think we now fould out the Vick was the problem and not Roddy White. Guys like Harrington and Redman made White look like an All Pro last season and Vick never did that with any WR except for the 6'5'' Finnneran ho could actuall reach his badly thrown over-throws Vick is known for.

Had Jenkins or White been drafted by New England and or Indianapolis their careers could be much different then they were under the poor throwing Vick.

[AnakinJoe]

Jenkins was drafted a year before Roddy and still sucked last year (while Roddy exploded). Jenkins was simply a BAD pick, his best attribute is being a good blocker. Think we could have found a good blocking receiver in like a 5th round selection? Edge Hartwell was an awful signing. So was Jason Webster. Has John Abraham ever matched his first game performance as a Falcon (against Carolina)? He cost us a 1st round pick AND Patrick Kearney (since we couldn't afford to re-sign him the following spring). McKay never found a reliable kicker, other than an ancient one. He ignored the offensive line completely.

Early round draft picks included Bryan Scott (bust), Jimmy Williams (bust), Mike Jenkins (bust), Blaylock (too early but was inactive during late rookie season), Jamaal Anderson (too early but zero sacks in rookie season), Roddy White (good but late bloomer) and DeAngelo Hall (good pick). Jerious was a 3rd round pick (and what has he done other than tease us for 2 seasons?). I'll give him credit for Mike Boley, Roddy White and DeAngelo Hall, and that's about it.

This team has ZERO depth because the '04 and '05 drafts resulted in maybe 2-3 players still on the squad. Oh and did I mention Ovie Muhalley, the highest paid FB ever?

And how about the Petrino hire? BRILLIANT! How do you interview a guy and come away not knowing that he'd rather talk to a vending machine than a player? UGH!!!

[Dexmethylphenidate]

We still haven't seen what JW is made of yet. He played very well toward the end of last season when he finally got time. Time will tell if this is a good move or not (and if McKay draft choice is good or not). Maybe the Patriots or somebody will pick him up and we'll see.

[DrReality]

I think this sends a clear message to the rest of the team about what they expect and what they will/won't put up with. Good move. He is a lot more valuable to us as a guy we cut than the marginal effort he gave us on the field. Go to Oakland, they love guys like that.

[Cwell]

first of all 04 was McKay's first draft. Stop blaiming him for stuff he didn't do,like Bryan Scott,Will Overstreet etc. McKay had nothing to do with the Peerless Price's and Duckett's of the world D.Hall was a great pick,he shouldn't have moved up for Jenkins because he wasn't even legit 1st round talent and in that move we gave the Colts our pick that they used on Bob Sanders. Matt Schaub was a great pick and we got alot out of him.DeMorrio Williams was a great pick also.He wasn't great but he wasn't that bad compared to other GM's. Our team is just that bad. We always run our good players out and keep garbage by signing them to 5 year extensions,Yet they couldn't get Boley or Hall signed. They should have never hired Petrino or negelected the whole team when we had Vick,they wanted him to win by himself. If I was Hall I would have wanted out too. I look at all these teams resigning their young stars while our are ALWAYS going somewhere else to be great. U see the Saints giving Will Smith his money. Dallas paid Marion Barber and Terrence Newman.But the damn falcons wait till the last minute and the team isn't put together well and they want to be stingy and the guy leaves. There's a reason why we don't have back to back winning seasons,we're obviously not doing things that all other teams besides Carolina are doing. That's why I have no faith in them resigning Boley or Roddy when it's time to. fans can't complain either because they want the good players gone anyway. They want to act like Hall is the worst CB in the league and Vick didn't hit WR's in the hands a million times only for them to drop it. I think Arthur Blank is hurting this team with his meddling too. Having big money doesn't fix all problems.

[EazyRoc]

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first of all 04 was McKay's first draft. Stop blaiming him for stuff he didn't do,like Bryan Scott,Will Overstreet etc. McKay had nothing to do with the Peerless Price's and Duckett's of the world D.Hall was a great pick,he shouldn't have moved up for Jenkins because he wasn't even legit 1st round talent and in that move we gave the Colts our pick that they used on Bob Sanders. Matt Schaub was a great pick and we got alot out of him.DeMorrio Williams was a great pick also.He wasn't great but he wasn't that bad compared to other GM's. Our team is just that bad. We always run our good players out and keep garbage by signing them to 5 year extensions,Yet they couldn't get Boley or Hall signed. They should have never hired Petrino or negelected the whole team when we had Vick,they wanted him to win by himself. If I was Hall I would have wanted out too. I look at all these teams resigning their young stars while our are ALWAYS going somewhere else to be great. U see the Saints giving Will Smith his money. Dallas paid Marion Barber and Terrence Newman.But the damn falcons wait till the last minute and the team isn't put together well and they want to be stingy and the guy leaves. There's a reason why we don't have back to back winning seasons,we're obviously not doing things that all other teams besides Carolina are doing. That's why I have no faith in them resigning Boley or Roddy when it's time to. fans can't complain either because they want the good players gone anyway. They want to act like Hall is the worst CB in the league and Vick didn't hit WR's in the hands a million times only for them to drop it. I think Arthur Blank is hurting this team with his meddling too. Having big money doesn't fix all problems.

They better resign Michael Boley and Roddy White. We don't have a lot of talent, and we can't afford to keep letting our good players get away. I think the Falcons will be a pretty good team in the future. This gave us some depth in some of the many positions we needed depth in. We still need some offensive linemen, but we can get some next year. I can't wait until preseason, man. I really want to see how the team plays..

[mattlanta]

It's not like no one saw this coming. He was out of shape, and he really was going downhill. He simply didn't pass the Falcons Filter, we had to move on without him.

[frosgrim]

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It's not like no one saw this coming. He was out of shape, and he really was going downhill. He simply didn't pass the Falcons Filter, we had to move on without him.

Actually Cwell defended Williams just last week. I mentioned Williams camp performance and Cwell said it wasn't a big deal. So much for that thought

[troubleman]

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I think this sends a clear message to the rest of the team about what they expect and what they will/won't put up with. Good move. He is a lot more valuable to us as a guy we cut than the marginal effort he gave us on the field.

Go to Oakland, they love guys like that.

You got that right, and even with Oakland's flaws the last 5 years, I'll take their history over the nonsense that passes for a football franchise in Atlanta. Every two or three years it's a new start for this franchise, and everyone feels good, and three years later everybody is hating the organization again. Being a Raider fan from the time I was a kid in the Bay Area, I love it when people take shots at them when they are down (not saying that you are). Jimmy Williams would be a welcome addition to the training camp roster, and if he fails, cut his a**. No harm, no foul.

[Johnnybravo4]

Damn, and he was such a good 3rd base coach too!

[DrReality]

?????????????????

[jhay610]

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McKay is ctiticized for "reaching" in the 1st round to provide M. Vick with some sold recievers. I think we now fould out the Vick was the problem and not Roddy White. Guys like Harrington and Redman made White look like an All Pro last season and Vick never did that with any WR except for the 6'5'' Finnneran ho could actuall reach his badly thrown over-throws Vick is known for.

Had Jenkins or White been drafted by New England and or Indianapolis their careers could be much different then they were under the poor throwing Vick.

Give me a break dude. The Falcons must have lead the league in drops the last full year Vick played. Mike threw a hard ball, but in my opinion, a professional wide receiver should catch anything that hits him in the hands. Thats why Crump's hands of gold were so valuable on that team. I can remember Roddy dropping lots of big-time, potentially game-changing deep passes in 06.

The fact that he was better last year had more to do with him maturing as a player than having Blowey Harrington throwing to him. And Jenkins is just a flat-out bust.

And Roddy had a great year last year, but its not like any of those games were important. Its easy to accumulate stats when 95% of your season is garbage time. I don't think we should count on him as $$ in the bank just yet.

[Dexmethylphenidate]

Crumple is technically a wide receiver also and you don't see him struggle with the football when Vick threw it to him. Who do you think made Crumpler a probowler?

[AHF]

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Crumple is technically a wide receiver also and you don't see him struggle with the football when Vick threw it to him. Who do you think made Crumpler a probowler?

Are you saying that all TEs are technically wide receivers or that Crumpler differed from TEs in the league so that he was really a WR?

* * *

On the bigger issue, Vick did not throw a nice ball a large % of the time. There is no question about that. When he was on, he whipped that ball like Brett Favre but there were a lot of times that passes were harder than they needed to be; hit the ground prematurely; sailed in the air; etc. If Vick would have had a good touch passing, he would have been the league's best player.

Those problems were compounded by our WRs, though. It wasn't just a matter of Vick throwing poor balls. The WRs let very catchable balls bounce off their hands way too often. Remember the New Orleans game in Atlanta Vick's last season? Roddy White and the other WRs repeatedly dropped very catchable passes - even one or two where the ball was rainbowing to them 10 yards beyond the last defender and they just dropped it. It is clear that White stepped up his game last year in addition to getting a larger % of catchable balls. If he played with Vick like he did last season, it would have been very good for the Falcons. The only question is whether White was intimidated by trying to catch Vick's passes (and therefore whether the development would have happened if Vick didn't get himself thrown in jail). If it wasn't mental, you have to recognize that the development was a good thing that was certainly not the product of having Redman, Harrington and Leftwich throwing instead of Vick.

[jhay610]

Hmmm CWell... you sound like you have been a Falcons fan for at least as long as i have....I identify with everything you said. The Falcons have been in Atlanta for roughly 44 years. Just off the top of my head, I would guestimate that we have been in a rebuild mode between 35-40 of them.

Hey. Lets get on board for another 5-year plan, shall we? Hope Matt Ryan is as good as we are paying him to be (great move; giving a guy franchise QB money before he ever steps on the field) or else we're another 8 years out or so (figure he gets at least 3-5 years even if he busts due to the signing bonus, plus another 3 years to develop the next guy).

[Dexmethylphenidate]

I'm just sick of people saying Vick is the problem with the Falcons in the passing game... saying Vick passes are not accurate or uncatchable. And I'm just saying how come Crumpler didn't have that problem? Roddy White will probably be the only one out of those WR that now have a playing spot regularly and he didn't exactly perform well when Vick threw him the ball (that pass in the NO game come to mind). And the line isn't exactly great either.

I will agree somewhat that Vick is a great thrower yet only an adequate passer, but in the passing game, it's a combination of the Line, QB and the receivers. We know that the line and the receivers are garbage yet some will blame it all on the QB.