"You're challenged with young guys," Williams said, a day after the Packers were knocked out of the playoffs. "Talented, young guys get played, but the game is still fast for them because they don't understand what teams are trying to do, they don't understand the scheme fully, they don't understand what the scheme can do for them, if they understand it.
"That's what you're faced with. Plus, the preparation. A lot of guys thought they knew how to prepare when they were in college, but then you get to the league and you find out there's another level to preparation. That's what you're faced with, with young guys. Even though we say it's a young league, yeah, it's a young league.
"It's an old league, too, because old guys make the league go."
The Packers have suffered through many growing pains at safety since Nick Collins was forced to retire and it has cost them. They put all their chips on Morgan Burnett, M.D. Jennings and Jerron McMillian and none of them advanced to a level Sam Shields or even Micah Hyde did.
And Thompson never brought in a veteran to stabilize the position.
Williams said he would express his opinions about the need for more veterans, but he wasn't demanding anything be done. He said that his experience is that veterans help the team both on the field and in the locker room.
"That’s the guys who have been there before, who know how to prepare, who molds the young guys," Williams said. "That’s what they’re there for. I understand I had the privilege of playing with (Charles) Woodson and Collins and Al Harris. I understand what chemistry in the secondary can do. That’s what you try to find when you get a good group of guys. You want to get guys all on the same page.
"You want guys to see things the way you see it if you’re the supposed leader of that group. When you can get guys to that point, slow the game down for everyone on that back end, then that’s when you start seeing a lot of plays being made, whether it’s your play or not, you know where the ball is going and you go and make the play. That’s what we’re trying to get.
"We have a great group of young guys in this room, but they’re young. They can play very talented, but still they’re young."
http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/238888671.html#ixzz2u9YbQwzF Follow us: @JournalSentinel on Twitter
http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/238888671.html#ixzz2u9Y8TcuU Follow us: @JournalSentinel on Twitter