Skip to Content
Top

Dr. Williams Lends Insight to SB Nation's Windy City Gridiron About Why Rugby-Styled Tackling Could Help Leonard Floyd and the B

|

Quinn in the confidence of his teachings, is of the Seattle Seahawks school of thinking as their former defensive coordinator, who also use similar teaching techniques when able to be hands-on with their players. It shows that this rugby tackling isn't an entirely new concept in the NFL. This method only needs to take firm hold in implementation in a conservative league.

Dr. Vernon Williams, director of the Kerlan-Jobe Center for Sports Neurology and Pain Medicine at Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic in Los Angeles, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that a change to the Falcons' and Seahawks' way-of-thinking could pay tremendous dividends for Floyd and the Bears.

“They (the Falcons) are using techniques that take (the head) out of play,” Williams said. “That, we believe is going to make a big difference and is already making a big difference. For an individual were their technique may be one that puts them at a little higher risk in addition to recovering from the concussion, it makes sense to train or re-train some of those tackling techniques.”

Football cannot exist in it's current state of miseducation and lack of teaching proper safety to youth and professionals alike. Even with quality form and technique, this simultaneously beautiful and dangerous game still has red flags all over it, albeit at a lesser risk. That lesser risk is what to aim for.

For a player like Floyd and for the Bears defensive roster as a whole, it would behoove the Chicago coaching staff to think big picture. To maintain precaution while installing a new standard of defensive play for a still-rebuilding team.

It's not too late either. Head coach John Fox isn't exactly known for being a trendsetter, but wouldn't a football coach love to maximize efficiency and minimize risk? The NFL is a copycat league in this very mindset so the hope should be that the writing is on the wall.

Read more of this article here.

Categories: