AHHHHH! DJ Williams.  The one bright spot at LB for the Broncos for the last few years.  One of the best draft picks of the Mike Shanahan era.  Perfect ILB?

In a word: Yes.

Many of us remember the DJ MLB experiment a couple of seasons ago as a negative, but I don’t see it that way.  I think most of would agree that No. 55 (it’s an old pic, he was No. 52 back in the day) is an aggressive LB, with great speed, vision, tackling ability, intelligence, and of course and awesome burst on the snap.

These reasons are why I think he’ll be a great ILB.

Let me explain.

When DJ played MLB for us, he played under Jim Bates.  While Jim is a great defensive coordinator, his stint here in Denver didn’t go so well.  That’s because Jim runs a read-and-react defense.  A lot of us are familiar with this type of defense, but for those that are not let me give you the basics.

This type of defense requires that all of its players (DL, LBs, SSs, CBs) hold the attack at the snap, read and decipher what the defense is trying to do, and finally react to it and make the stop. 

If you consider the type of defensive players we had then, the only one that could’ve fit the system well was Champ, and that’s mainly because Champ can fit any system.

We did not have the DL, or LBs for this system.  The prove is in, how bad we were at defense that year.  You see in this system there is no blitzing, only the line goes after the QB.  That was a disservice to perhaps our best defensive player. 

DJ’s greatness comes from having in attack mode from the start, and not read and react.  Besides the lack of talent across the defensive line, or the lack of personnel to fit the system, DJ had an amazing season. He recorded 170 tackles, a sack, a pick, three forced fumbles, and four passes defended.

Not bad for a kid who didn’t fit the system. The problem, which a lot of the so called analyst and experts saw, was that most of his plays came after the runner had crossed the line of scrimmage.

They labeled him and “ok MLB” but nothing special. I beg to differ.  A lot of fans have taken this to heart, but i say to you, not so fast, let’s look at this first.

I think DJ can be a spectacular ILB for us.  DJ doesn’t fit the read and react scheme well, not because he’s not smart enough, he’s plenty smart, but because you take away one of the best things about DJ, his burst off the snap.  In a 3-4 or 4-3 scheme that has attacking LBs, DJ’s burst, would be coveted.

See, if we take DJ, and have him in attack mode all the time as an ILB, he will make the plays behind the line that we need him to make.  Another attribute of DJ that makes me believe in his ability to play ILB for us, is his ability to make adjustments on the fly.

If the coach just calls the plays and lets DJ attack the ball, like he has done for us in the past, he adjusts if the play changes.  If you have him read and react, I have notice that he tends to over think things. When he’s just attacking the ball and letting loose DJ is a top three LB in this league.

I write this article because, a lot of the fans that I speak to believe that DJ is best suited for the outside, I disagree, DJ’s talents are many and he can handle the inside.  This is just my opinion, from what I have seen in the games.  So, please let me know what you guys think about this with some comments, thanks.

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