Thursday, February 28, 2008

Madieu Williams...Really?

For some unknown reason, Shea has developed some serious man love for safety Madieu Williams of the Bengals who is a free agent this offseason. As mentioned in his post about how he feels the Vikings needs to make a big splash in free agency, as well as in several offline conversations between the two of us, Shea has said repeatedly how he thinks Williams is the Viking's answer to replace Dwight Smith. I have one response to that...WRONG!

Let's think about this for a moment, shall we? Williams has been in the league for 4 years, with the 2004 season being his rookie campaign. Starting with that season, the Bengals have ranked 13th, 26th, 31st, and 26th again last season. Sure there are multiple players in the system and there are a lot of contributions to these poor rankings, but this guy really just has not been the impact player the Vikings need in the secondary. Certainly it has been seen that a player like Bob Sanders can change an entire defense from terrible to the top. While I am not demanding any such criteria from Williams, it would be nice to see some improvement somewhere. Why pay top dollar for an average player at best in a secondary that obviously needs some improvement.

In fact, looking at his tackle totals each season leading up to this last one starting with Williams' rookie year, his tackles have gone from 103, 88 and 74, excluding 2005 in which he only played in 4 games. Not exactly a trend that is favorable to Williams being the impact player Shea claims him to be. In a secondary that relies on turnovers as does the Vikings, Williams' career best 3 interceptions in one season is poor as well.

Sure Kevin Williams and Pat Williams are phenomenal players, but let's be real now, adding another Williams to the mix in Madieu Williams would be a mistake. This is not only because Madieu Williams is simply not an impact player, but can you imaging trying to listen to a broadcast of the game? It would be a broadcaster's dream as no matter what happens on a play he or she can simply give "Williams" credit and the odds of being correct will certainly be in his or her favor. This, however, would be a nightmare for anyone listening and you'd never know who did what.

In all seriousness, however, I reiterate that the draft is where this position most likely needs to be addressed, unless a diamond in the rough like C.C. Brown can be had. Sure, it is a little risky plugging a rookie into your starting lineup, but it sure beats overpaying someone that has shown no promise to being the impact player the Vikings need in their secondary. At least the rookie gives you the chance of having that impact player, a much greater chance than a veteran like Williams.

With two posts now done concerning the safety position I will now turn my attention to other positions of need on the Vikings in upcoming posts. Well, that is unless I have to set Shea straight on some Twins issues that he butchers. Look for a breakdown on defensive ends for the Vikings to consider or run away from soon.

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