Colts hire Greg Williams as defensive backs coach

The Indianapolis Colts today announced another member of their coaching staff as they hired Greg Williams to be their defensive backs coach.

Contrary to some initial reactions, this isn't the same Gregg Williams that was involved in the Saints' Bounty Gate scandal (this Greg has one less "g" in his name and less coaching experience).  The Greg Williams that the Colts hired has spent the past seven seasons with the San Diego Chargers on their coaching staff.  He was hired in 2009 as their assistant linebackers coach, a position he held for four seasons (2009-2012).  For the past three seasons, Williams has been the team's assistant secondary coach (2013-2015).  While in that role, the Chargers secondary has been very good - safety Eric Weddle made two Pro Bowls and in 2014 the Chargers ranked fourth in the league in passing defense.  Other players, like cornerbacks Jason Verrett and Brandon Flowers, have also impressed.  Before his time in San Diego, Williams was a secondary and defensive graduate assistant at the University of Pittsburgh in 2008 and the defensive backs coach and recruiting coordinator for two seasons at Arkansas Tech University (2006-2007).  He started out as a coaching intern at Arizona State in 2003 before then coaching at the College of DuPage for two years (2004-2005), first as a wide receivers coach and then as a defensive backs coach.  He payed college football at North Carolina, playing wide receiver and defensive back, before training camp stints with the Bears and Jets and time in NFL Europe, the XFL, and the Arena Football League.

The hiring of Greg Williams makes sense for the Colts, considering the fact that he has worked for John Pagano in San Diego for seven years.  John, of course, is the brother of Colts head coach Chuck Pagano and the current defensive coordinator for the Chargers.  John Pagano has been the defensive coordinator for the past four seasons and before that was the linebackers coach, meaning he would have worked very closely with Wiliams - who was the assistant linebackers coach for three seasons while Pagano was the linebackers coach.  It would make sense that Chuck would call his brother up for recommendations for the coaching staff, and that is likely what happened here with Greg Williams.

Williams joins a coaching staff in Indianapolis that has a lot of new faces, as in addition to Williams they have already brought in defensive coordinator Ted Monachino, linebackers coach Jim Herrmann, quarterbacks coach Brian Schottenheimer, offensive line coach Joe Philbin, and strength and conditioning coach Darren Krein.