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Published on 03/06/2008 at Thu Mar 06 10:45.



Man in the Middle

Posted Thu Mar 6th by

So, I have returned from my business trip down in Miami to find that Denver has already been very active in the free agency market. I like most of the moves we’ve made but I feel like I need to comment on one in particular.

I was pleased to see that we signed linebacker Niko Koutouvides. He seems like a talented guy and a great special teams captain. However, I was shocked and appalled at all the media coverage that has followed this signing. Most of the coverage seems to imply (if not state as fact) that Niko will be taking over DJ William’s middle linebacker job this year.

Now, before we all go throwing DJ under the bus for being a captain of a sinking ship last season, let’s review the facts…

1. The failure of the 2007 Denver defense rests squarely on the shoulders of Jim Bates. He attempted to beat a square peg into a round hole… and failed. We didn’t have the correct personnel to become Green Bay or Miami, but that didn’t stop Bates from trying to force our team into that mold (I might also add, that in the process he ditched at least a few players that had preformed very well for us in past schemes – Gerard Warren anyone?). End result, the defense sucked… but not because DJ changed the scheme… Jim Bates owns that screw up.

2. DJ Williams took over the leadership and MIKE role on the defense last year under the worst possible conditions. Beloved defensive leader Al Wilson had just left the team for good. DJ’s former coach, Larry Coyer, had been replaced with Jim Bates, and the entire defensive scheme was about to change (and then change back midseason). That’s a tall order for anyone to fill.

3. Despite those conditions, DJ led the team in tackles racking up 141 tackles (109 solo), 5 pass deflections, a couple of forced fumbles and a sack. He also developed noticeably each week into a stronger leader and a constant force in the middle of our defense.

Let’s put DJ’s performance last year in perspective, shall we?

DJ Williams not only led our team in tackles… He led the ENTIRE LEAGUE in tackles by a MLB last year. His 141 tackles tops Al Wilson’s best year (131) and his average (96). Heck, John Mobley and Romo didn’t top 100 tackles when they were playing (at least in the years after the NFL started to track tackles).

But what about Niko?

Well, Niko was drafted in 2004. He has started a total of 2 games. In the 59 games he has playing time in, he has racked up 52 TOTAL tackles, one pass deflection and one sack.

…um… THIS is guy ordained to take over the MLB position?

Now, before anyone gets too upset with my rant, I want you to understand that I support the idea that EVERYONE on Mike Shanahan’s team competes for their starting position every year. Mike and his coaches will put the very best players on the field regardless of past service or personal feelings. That’s one of the things I love about our organization – and it’s one of the things that makes our team great.

However, I feel that the media is doing a disservice to our team (and specifically to a very talented and great performer in DJ) when they continue to herald Niko’s arrival as the end of DJ William’s time in the middle. DJ deserves to compete for his starting job just like everyone else on the team, and the media (especially the Denver Post) has no business declaring changes to the depth chart in March, before any OTA days have given these players a chance to battle it out.

I’m not starting a ‘GIVE DJ A CHANCE’ campaign yet, but I will if this nonsense keeps up.

Even more troubling is our new defensive coordinator Bob Slowik’s comments prior to any off-season signing (including Niko) in which he all but resigns William’s to a fill-in role.

“Where ever our linebackers corps winds up, [We’ll] try to fit DJ into a position where you can get the best guys on the field.” — Bob Slowik

Hey, Bob. You might want to try DJ out at the MIKE position… I hear he’s pretty good.

  • Mitch Melheim

    Yes I see that DJ had incredible stats at the MIKE position this year, but with that being said I would like to see him move back to Weak Side Linebacker which he is more comfortable with. If we do this and get Boss (who is a natural Strong Side Backer that is perfect to put over the Tight End) then we could see if Niko could compete for a starting spot…and if not, remember Nate Webster (who put up a solid 87 tackles last year) used to play some Mike Backer in Tampa.

  • http://broncotalk.net Kyle

    Welcome back J.D. Good to see you made it back alright and had a fun trip.

    I think D.J. plays very very well at either mike or will, and whichever position provides the greatest strength for the entire LB corps is the way to go. Right now that appears to be DJ at Will, and Kouts at Mike. But as you said, this is March on-paper prognostications. In other words worthless!

    Love the passion, but have to admit I am leaning toward thinking D.J. will slide back to his “preferred” position, at weakside, where he played in college and in his rookie year.

  • danh

    I really had high hopes for Jim Bates. The defense has been in trouble in the get go with close games to Buffalo and Oakland that it was a sign that we would struggle in the season. The worst part will be the growing pain of a new defensive coordinator and I hope the community will give him a chance.

  • hercules rockefeller

    How do we know weak-side is his preferred position? Or that he’s more “comfortable” on the weak side. He hasn’t played there in four years. I think making him learn another position for the third consecutive year is bad news. Maybe he won’t have to learn as much this off season, but he’s still having to learn another position when he should be honing his technique.

    Once he figured out how to play MLB effectively, he was pretty frickin’ good. I don’t think it makes any sense at all to move him again.

  • http://www.broncotalk.net Jonathan Douglas

    Couple of quick notes:

    1. Most certainly, if DJ ‘prefers’ to play weakside and is ok with the demotion (and it will certainly be seen as that from a leadership stand point), then I would say he definitely needs to be over at WILL. :)

    Comment: I agree with Herc on this one… I haven’t heard DJ saying he wants to give up MIKE after last year. If that’s been said, I would really like to see the qoute.

    2. I think many people view DJ is a great weakside linebacker playing in the middle.

    Comment: I have always viewed DJ as an athlete that happens to play linebacker rather than a specialist at one position. You can see that from his days at De La Salle HS when he played RB & LB, or his time in Miami when he started out playing FB and then transferred to LB, or his time playing for Denver at all three LB positions. However, the Denver Post has been anti-DJ-in-the-middle since before the season started last year (see THIS ARTICLE). And even a great year proving them wrong hasn’t changed their tune.

    3. Given the players we’ll have this year, we may NEED DJ to play WILL rather than MIKE.

    Comments: That may be the case in 2008, and I would expect DJ would fill that role without complaint if he thought it was best for the team (even if it wasn’t what he personally wanted). However, one could argue that maybe hiring or drafting a good WILL linebacker would allow DJ to continue to excel in the middle while providing more competition, depth and special teams players than we’ve had since…. well, since we lost Al Wilson and Keith Burns moved into an coaching office. :)

    My points were basically what Kyle said too, it’s too early to be inking a depth chart. And, I believe DJ did well enough to earn the right to fight to keep the MIKE job in ’08.

  • http://broncotalk.net Kyle

    Maybe preferred is the wrong word, Herc. How about “default.”

  • http://www.broncotalk.net Jonathan Douglas

    hahahaha! :)

    Kyle no worries… I’ve heard several sources use the same term ‘peferred’ to describe DJ and the weakside. I know it’s supposed to mean default in most cases, but I think for the media (like the Denver Post) they use it to pigeon hole players like DJ… and that’s not fair to a guy that’s played all over the LB field and excelled at each position.

    However, I don’t doubt your insight that things seem to be heading toward DJ on the weakside in ’08. I just hope he gets a chance to defend his starting MIKE job before getting tossed to the side.

  • lax65

    i dont think anybody is throwing DJ under the bus here. anyone who is a true bronco fan knows he did well for a first time middle linebacker. but im seeing it this way. koutouvides is gonna compete for a starting job, not with DJ williams but with some other mike linebacker we bring in. DJ is gonna move back to his natural weakside and be the automatic starter. did everyone forget how dominant DJ was in his rookie year? he was second in rookie of the year voting when he played on the weakside. niko isnt TAKING DJ’s job, Dj is just moving back to his natural position.

  • http://www.broncotalk.net Jonathan Douglas

    Lax65,

    I have to side with Herc on this one… I don’t believe you can call a position he hasn’t played in years as his ‘natural’ or ‘prefered’ or ‘default’ position.

    Are we talking about experience during his college years? If that’s the case, we might have him compete at fullback then too (he’d be awesome there by the way). And why stop there? He broke records in HS as a running back, why not have him go back to that position?

    He excelled at all those positions before working on the weakside LB position. Won’t one of those be equally considered his ‘natural’ position? :)

    I think with a rare talent like DJ, he deserves a chance to compete for his starting job from last year, regardless of what positions he may have played in years gone by.

  • http://www.firebaughprecast.com Josh

    I think lax pretty much sums up my thought on this point other than one thing. I completely agree with Johnathan that DJ performed well at MLB for the situation he was thrown in, but I don’t know if he is the right type of build for that position. I noticed on many plays we were missing what I like to call “our battering ram” in the middle. Now I don’t think I’ve ever seen a better player for this than Wilson, so to compare to the master is not fair. But you need to have someone that can charge up the middle and blow up a guard or full back completely devastating a running play in the back field every so many downs. I also think DJ’s athleticism is better utilized on the outside.

    I don’t know if Niko is this guy either. I think Denver went after him as an overachiever. He’s going to play ST extremely well and have a good shot at competing for the MLB job. I don’t understand why the Post is anointing him already. I think Webster could fill that role as well. If we put DJ where Ian was, I think it will solve a lot of problems of getting run over on sweeps and pitches to the outside. I could also see us taking Keith Rivers in the draft, keeping DJ in the middle with Boss on the other side and I really like the look of that unit.

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