And as per Williams play last year, some players play really well when they are approaching contract year and once get paid, drop off.

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Also Williams was a worse pass rusher better, run blocker, less conditioned KGB.....

Great 3rd down guy, but that good of a starter. Over 75% of his sacks came against horrible OLs, and those horrible OL had to also deal with Kampman and KGB.... who aren't you going to double?

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7 sacks from the interior .. you are kidding right.. Williams was able to play both the run and the pass effectively.. he played well one on one, but did struggle with double teams inside on runs.

I think you underappreciate how difficult it is to get 7 sacks inside... not many really good interior pass rushing DT floating around.

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Williams was let go because Packer insiders felt that he was like Cledius Hunt. He had the attitude of not working very hard and was kind of lazy. They were scared that if they gave him a big pay day, he wouldn't respond in a positive way.

I tend to agree with that assessment and judging from his play this year, they might of been right, but you need to be able to replace him effectively and they haven't done that.

Justin Harrell is hurt.
Cullen Jenkins was playing well, but more so from the outside this year instead of the inside. Of course he's done for the year now.
Colin Cole is a decent run stopper, but lacks a pass rush.
Johnny Jolly is a fireball out there, but he's also been out of shape at times.
Ryan Pickett is a run stopper and that's it. Of course he hasn't done a good job this year so far.

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Thanks Porky.

I'll back off on my criticism of Ted Thompson 's move on this one then. Didn't know that.

What I did know is Williams worked really well in our scheme. He got results. But we don't need someone with a big paycheck who decides he doesn't have to prove himself any more.

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This is how I remember it, as well. Also, I don't recall a lot of negative opinions of the move on the boards, so some of this seems a little "hindsight is 20/20" to me -- obviously, the Jenkins injury (along with Harrel's failure to get on the field thus far) makes it look worse, but I honestly don't remember many people having any problem with the deal at the time. On the contrary, most folks felt that Ted had gotten a good deal for him.

As for his performance in Cleveland thus far, there's really no way to tell whether it's a matter of him being lazy after his payday or him being a bad fit for the system. Crennel doesn't strike me as a dumb guy when it comes to his defense, so I'm erring on the side of the player being at fault until I see something to indicate otherwise.

At any rate, he's gone now -- so like a lot of the 'what if' scenarios that get discussed about stuff that's over and done with, the point is moot.

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Don't get me wrong, I am not upset that Williams wasn't retained, more he played well for us last year. Kid has the talent to push the interior of the pocket.. something we are missing from the inside.

Looking back at the trade, it was logical to move him, Jolly played well and Harrell should be a player in year two. Pickett is the anchor and Cole is a solid backup. Muir was suppose to take another step up, but didn't appear to have grown.

Only thing I was saying is too discount Williams play last year isn't valid.. contract year or not.

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