Kyle Williams: Officially Retires

[BADOLBILZ]

2 hours ago, Rico said:

Say what you want about McD, but whether or not he gets fired after next year, his greatest accomplishment by far will have been kicking Ralph’s trash out the door, and for that I will be eternally greatful. 

 

Don't forget letting KW score a TD in his "first" "last regular season game of his career" last year against the Dolphins.   Gotta' do it again.

 

As for grateful for McD......I will be forever grateful to the ol' wrasslin' coach for starting Peterman against the Chargers.........I will be decrepit and senile and still be laughing about how stupid that was and the jag offs in the media(and our own TSW Jags) who thought it was the right move.   Hilariously memorable.  

[LSHMEAB]

2 minutes ago, OldTimeAFLGuy said:

 

...perhaps the inglorious nature of "stats only" analysis?......aren't there certain positions that will never be BIG "stats positions"?....so he hung on for 13 years for NOT holding up?..could today's Star be in that category?....

Star is the antithesis of Williams, but I'll reserve critique for another thread.

[OldTimeAFLGuy]

1 hour ago, JohninMinn. said:

In the history of retirements never was a player more overrated than Kyle Williams. It's ridiculous.

 

..."ignorance is bliss".....undoubtedly, you're "happy happy"........prolly a MN Franken voter............

7 minutes ago, LSHMEAB said:

Star is the antithesis of Williams, but I'll reserve critique for another thread.

 

...NEVER was comparing stats, production or heart...NEVER...EVER....was talking about reference to being under appreciated solely based on gaudy, inconsequential stats.....some positions go about their work without stats PERIOD.............

[LSHMEAB]

4 minutes ago, OldTimeAFLGuy said:

 

..."ignorance is bliss".....undoubtedly, you're "happy happy"........prolly a MN Franken voter............

 

...NEVER was comparing stats, production or heart...NEVER...EVER....was talking about reference to being under appreciated solely based on gaudy, inconsequential stats.....some positions go about their work without stats PERIOD.............

I understood your point. While I understand that Kyle was dedicated and a great locker room presence, he was also an extremely talented player who MADE PLAYS. That's the distinction between him and a guy like Star. This thread is about Kyle so I'll leave it at that.

[OldTimeAFLGuy]

16 minutes ago, LSHMEAB said:

I understood your point. While I understand that Kyle was dedicated and a great locker room presence, he was also an extremely talented player who MADE PLAYS. That's the distinction between him and a guy like Star. This thread is about Kyle so I'll leave it at that.

 

..and THAT is NEVER to be argued bud.....striking GOLD in the 5th?...''nuff said...........

[4merper4mer]

2 hours ago, BADOLBILZ said:

 

 

Yeah we are going to have to disagree on the gravity of the subject matter.

 

Peace out to you.✌️

    

 

Your premise was that the retirement was about the direction of the franchise yet Williams direct quote was that the hardest part was knowing he was in synch with the direction.  The gravity is different but the pertinence is equal.

[JerseyBills]

Glad he was a Bill. What he brought to this team will live on through his teammates he impacted. Guys are going to use those habits and make themselves and the team better. Class act by McDermott . This team is going places and Kyle was a huge part to instill some much needed leadership in the beginning of what I expect to be a beautiful run by this organization. 95,  was pleasure watching you 

5 hours ago, wppete said:

 

Didn't expect this. Respect to Marrone .

[LABILLBACKER]

5 minutes ago, JerseyBills said:

Glad he was a Bill. What he brought to this team will live on through his teammates he impacted. Guys are going to use those habits and make themselves and the team better. Class act by McDermott . This team is going places and Kyle was a huge part to instill some much needed leadership in the beginning of what I expect to be a beautiful run by this organization. 95,  was pleasure watching you 

Well said. I pray his leadership and work ethic lives on in these young players. Players like Fred Jackson and Kyle Williams don't come around every year.

[JerseyBills]

3 hours ago, JohninMinn. said:

In the history of retirements never was a player more overrated than Kyle Williams. It's ridiculous.

You obviously missed the point. He's not the greatest DT. He's not the fastest ,  strongest or talented. It's the impact he made off the field. It's the leadership , the work habits that will hopefully live on through his teammates.  Look no further than the impressions he made on his coaches and teammates. He will be missed probably off the field more than anything 

[John from Riverside]

4 hours ago, JohninMinn. said:

In the history of retirements never was a player more overrated than Kyle Williams. It's ridiculous.

I dont know if you could be more wrong on this....seriously

 

Mulitple pro bowls

Team leader

He is what it is to be a bill....he is the best of things.   Im gonna miss him as he was my favorite player.

 

When you needed a player to make a play in a game when it actually mattered....this was the guy doing it.

[stony]

4 hours ago, JohninMinn. said:

In the history of retirements never was a player more overrated than Kyle Williams. It's ridiculous.

No no no no.  Through any objective lens, he's actually underrated given the shitstorm he weathered in Buffalo for 13 years.  It's damn impressive he managed to get into 5 pro bowls during a period the Bills were virtually anonymous from a national perspective.  

[RaoulDuke79]

Hopefully they can send him off with a win. Over the course of his career he's given everything he had for this team.  I wish he could go out with something more than 1 playoff game.

[LSHMEAB]

1 hour ago, JerseyBills said:

You obviously missed the point. He's not the greatest DT. He's not the fastest ,  strongest or talented. It's the impact he made off the field. It's the leadership , the work habits that will hopefully live on through his teammates.  Look no further than the impressions he made on his coaches and teammates. He will be missed probably off the field more than anything 

I totally disagree with this assessment. If Kyle Williams was an average player, he'd still be a class act, but nobody would care. The reason we're celebrating him is partially because of his character, but mainly because he was an outstanding TALENTED football player. Not to nitpick this post, but it seems like his actual football accomplishments get overshadowed by his persona. The guy was a baller for many, many years at a grueling position.

[wppete]

 

[JerseyBills]

1 hour ago, LSHMEAB said:

I totally disagree with this assessment. If Kyle Williams was an average player, he'd still be a class act, but nobody would care. The reason we're celebrating him is partially because of his character, but mainly because he was an outstanding TALENTED football player. Not to nitpick this post, but it seems like his actual football accomplishments get overshadowed by his persona. The guy was a baller for many, many years at a grueling position.

I agree . Multiple pro bowls. Multiple top 100 appearances. It's just Kyle was never considered an elite, top 5 type DT. He had to work his butt off to be a very good/great DT.  If he doesn't put in that type of work , he's probably average at best.

 

Meanwhile a guy like Dareus is probably the complete opposite. Top 3 pick , naturally blessed with all the physical tools to be an elite DT but never handled business off the field , never worked like Kyle and now he's not even talked about when you bring up interior defenders and likely will never come close to having the type of career the smaller Kyle had , because of the man he was off the field

[Happy]

   

 

Johnny Manziel will never forget Kyle.

[Buffalo716]

Kyle the football player was relentless, hard working and the guy every coach wants 53 of

 

Kyle the person , even better...

 

Hope we can send this stand up guy home the right way ?

 

thanks for the memories Kyle 

[Mr. WEO]

He couldn't wait till halftime?

[Hapless Bills Fan]

On 12/28/2018 at 4:13 PM, fansince88 said:

On John Murphy today he said he would have rather done that and just rode off into the sunset. Coach and Beane and the Pegs said the fans deserved his going out this way instead.

 

OK, this may mark me as "cynical" instead of "hapless" or "hopeful", but....

from a marketing perspective, having a very popular fan favorite like Kyle Williams announce his retirement does probably provide fans with a motivation to attend this Sunday's game which would otherwise be entirely lacking

 

I know if I were anywhere within a reasonable travel timeline from my other committments I would be there, bank on it.

 

Godspeed KW and yes, it's also true he does deserve to get whatever extra fan love may come his way

2 hours ago, LSHMEAB said:

I totally disagree with this assessment. If Kyle Williams was an average player, he'd still be a class act, but nobody would care. The reason we're celebrating him is partially because of his character, but mainly because he was an outstanding TALENTED football player. Not to nitpick this post, but it seems like his actual football accomplishments get overshadowed by his persona. The guy was a baller for many, many years at a grueling position.

 

Yes, this.  But I think what may be meant by "average player" is he's the guy that was designated by metrics and scouts to be an after thought... but by a combination of hard work, grit, and study, he maximized his physical talents and earned everyone's respect on the field.  If he had 1/2 the physical attributes given by nature to Mario and Dareus he'd be HOF.

[fansince88]

28 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

OK, this may mark me as "cynical" instead of "hapless" or "hopeful", but....

from a marketing perspective, having a very popular fan favorite like Kyle Williams announce his retirement does probably provide fans with a motivation to attend this Sunday's game which would otherwise be entirely lacking

 

I know if I were anywhere within a reasonable travel timeline from my other committments I would be there, bank on it.

 

Godspeed KW and yes, it's also true he does deserve to get whatever extra fan love may come his way

I would be "cynical " too except KW really speaks highly of McD. Did you listen to his visit on the show Friday? If not check it out. KW truly loves the team and McD. Has tons of respect.

 

[ExWNYer]

1 hour ago, Mr. WEO said:

He couldn't wait till halftime?

 

I see what you did there...?

[Hapless Bills Fan]

On 12/28/2018 at 11:29 AM, BADOLBILZ said:

Watching McDermott get totally outclassed on the sideline by Belichick for the 4th consecutive time on Sunday my thought turned to Kyle Williams seeing that and figuring winning next year seems too unlikely to make all that hard work worthwhile.    That was a BAD loss.   Wouldn't be surprised if that tipped the scale.

 

I think it's far more likely that he thought about it hard last year because of his family, and realized this year he was losing a little bit, so it was time to move on.

 

If watching a Bills coach get totally outclassed by Belicheck tipped the scale, that poor scale would have been upended 3 years back when Sexy Rexy took over for Schwartz and demoted our defense from 4th to irrelevant.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

On 12/28/2018 at 5:31 PM, BillsEnthusiast said:

 

Can you politely can it for just a little while while we celebrate Kyle's career? 

 

This x1000, please.

Somewhere else.  Not here right now.

[KD in CA]

7 hours ago, Rico said:

Yes, I was in LA that day and that game was very painful to experience, worst time I've ever seen the Bills live.

My lasting memory of the 2017 season though will be McD breaking the drought in his very 1st year as coach.

 

 

Oh, that's a painful memory for the angry mob here on TSW (we don't have a catchy name for them like they do for 'Team Stormcloud' on the Sabres board), who have much bigger fish to fry (McD and Beane) than celebrating making the playoffs after 17 years!

 

 

Thanks Kyle...you'll be missed!

Edited December 30, 2018 by KD in CA

[Hapless Bills Fan]

 

11 hours ago, BADOLBILZ said:

If the moderators wanted a "send your well wishes only with no associated critique's of Bills management" thread then they could have designated one..........those kinds of things have been done before.

 

I don't think anyone wanted a "well wishes only" thread, diverging opinions on KW and why he retired etc welcome.

 

I for one hoped that people would respect the topic enough to more-or-less stay to it and not diverge into general discussions that are taking place in half a dozen other threads.

 

A bunch of pruning has been done.  I'm sure I pruned something  I shouldn't have and left something I shouldn't have but that's Life with the Shears.

 

Please more or less keep to the topic of KW, his play, speculation on why he retired - but when it diverges to general discussion of McD's coaching, other players, a specific game with no mention of KW...

 

....Somewhere else.  Not here, please.

 

 

[Green Lightning]

9 hours ago, JohninMinn. said:

In the history of retirements never was a player more overrated than Kyle Williams. It's ridiculous.

No good is going to come if you keep eating paint chips.

[Livinginthepast]

End of era. Thank you Kyle for being a class act and solid, dependable player. Glad that he made it to the playoffs and too bad that a guy with his work ethic didn't experience more success because of the ineptness of the Bills management through much of his tenure here. You will be missed!

[Stank_Nasty]

6 hours ago, stony said:

No no no no.  Through any objective lens, he's actually underrated given the shitstorm he weathered in Buffalo for 13 years.  It's damn impressive he managed to get into 5 pro bowls during a period the Bills were virtually anonymous from a national perspective.  

I was just chatting today with somebody about this. He was a cowboys fan. He was the one that actually brought it up.... can you imagine the buzz from the media and send off a player would get from around the league  if they played for the cowboys or the Steelers or pats and they were 5 time pro bowler that played with said team the whole 13 years of their career? 

 

 

[IgotBILLStopay]

14 hours ago, JohninMinn. said:

In the history of retirements never was a player more overrated than Kyle Williams. It's ridiculous.

Huh? Opposing view points by fans are a great feature of message boards but.... every once in a while there will be an exception. At least say why you think he is overrated - back it up with something.

 

Even without considering any any stats - When your teammates want you on that wall and voted you captain, when your coach publicly lobbies to have you play one more year, when opposing coaches speak glowingly - these facts about KW95 should make someone pause before calling him overrated. 

Edited December 30, 2018 by IgotBILLStopay

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

9 hours ago, Happy Gilmore said:

   

 

Johnny Manziel will never forget Kyle.

Manziel = ‘JohninMinn.’?  ?

Edited December 30, 2018 by Ridgewaycynic2013

[GaryPinC]

20 hours ago, BADOLBILZ said:

 

 

No "let's start" by building an ENORMOUS 10 story straw man argument to make it look like BADOL is being critical of Kyle in all those ways!

 

NOTHING I said in this thread is in any way, shape or form critical of Kyle Williams. 

 

 

 

 

 

What you are doing is theorizing his rationales for playing this season and retiring while ignoring everything about how the man operates and what he stands for.

 

Your theories are most likely wrong, because as per my previous post, Kyle has demonstrated in many ways he doesn't act noticeably on your ascribed level.  While highly competitive, winning (at least short term) does not appear to be his primary motivation.

 

In no way did I say you were critical of Kyle Williams and ironically ( but unsurprisingly) that is the only straw man argument here.

[Brianmoorman4jesus]

Today could potentially be the last Bills game for a lot of important Bills veterans. Certainly Kyle, possibly Shady, maybe The Lorax, could be Hughes and definitely Clay. Might be a bittersweet day here. Hopefully Shady, Hughes and Alexander come back for at least 1 more. I feel like there’s a pretty good chance all of them are gone.

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

20 hours ago, JohninMinn. said:

In the history of retirements never was a player more overrated than Kyle Williams. It's ridiculous.

Time to ‘get serious’, John.

[YoloinOhio]

 

[Brianmoorman4jesus]

Today is not about wether or not Kyle is slightly overrated. Kyle is this generations Bill. The guy the fan base can most identify with. He certainly was a big time over achiever and brought a toughness and passion for Football that can’t be ignored. He is now a major part of this organizations history and will absolutely be on the wall of fame. Today is just about saying goodbye and thank you to a guy who gave his all to a team we all love. Wether or not you feel like he was ever really a great player is a conversation for another day. Let’s jist let today be and give the guy a respectful send off.

[BillsFan4]

I can’t believe today is the last time I will ever get to watch Kyle Williams play football in a Bills jersey. 

 

 ☹️

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nice article on Kyle by Eric Wood. Athletic sub. needed -

 

https://theathletic.com/738976/2018/12/29/wood-paying-tribute-to-kyle-williams-the-heart-and-soul-of-the-bills-before-his-last-nfl-game/

 

Found this part interesting - 

 

Quote

Kyle was good for one or two really good fights a year that never went public. A lot of people pegged me as the fighter on the team, but Kyle had a trigger. We would sign a free-agent offensive lineman with fresh legs in the middle of the season. A good mid-season NFL practice is one where nobody hits the ground or gets twisted up. Some young guy would try to impress his way off the practice squad or into the starting lineup by taking a defensive lineman to the ground in practice. Kyle would not put up with that for a second. That new guy would pay the price.

 

Much is made of how classy Kyle is as a teammate and captain and how he has the young guys over to his house for dinner and welcomes you with open arms.

But Kyle is also mean. That’s one of the traits that makes him great on the field. He’s a mean player. A lot of offensive linemen caught his wrath over the years, and I don’t think he ever lost a practice fight. He would get a guy on the ground pretty quickly, and we would have to pull him off.

 

Edited December 30, 2018 by BillsFan4

[Capco]

I have friends who are fans of other teams.  Many of them not only know of Kyle Williams and respect him, but also wish they had a guy like that on their teams.  

 

He's cemented his place as one of my favorite Buffalo Bills and I hope he gets into coaching later in life.  He's a natural leader of men and an excellent mentor.  

[Bronxbomber21]

On 12/28/2018 at 9:27 AM, TigerJ said:

I'd like to see him get into coaching.

I was thinking the samething. Is there any way he stays on as a Dline As. Coach we can really use his help coaching up the young D tackles.

[dgrochester55]

On 12/29/2018 at 1:24 PM, Bob in STL said:

 

2006 Draft Class.  We have had much worse, this draft is not horrible at all.  Kyle alone makes it good. 

 

Whitner is a lightning rod on this board but he played a lot of games and did well, despite being picked 20 slots too soon and being crucified for it.  McCargo was a bust, Yobouty a nothing.  Brad Butler was looking very good until injury cut his career short.  He was on a similar path as Kyle.  Keith Ellison did a decent job too. 

 

We got some games out of Simpson, Merz, and Pennington.  I have seen much worse, 

 

1	8	Donte Whitner	SS	Ohio State
1	26	John McCargo	DT	North Carolina State
3	70	Ashton Youboty	CB	Ohio State
4	105	Ko Simpson	FS	South Carolina
5	134	Kyle Williams	DT	Louisiana State
5	143	Brad Butler	T	Virginia
6	178	Keith Ellison	OLB	Oregon State
7	216	Terrance Pennington	T	New Mexico
7	248	Aaron Merz	G	California

 

Whitner would have been a good second or third round pick, but underachieved as a top 10 choice.   Not completely his fault, but still a bad pick.   Valid point on Butler who I forgot about, but he was looking like a possible long term starter before he decided to retire for politics.    Ellison started for awhile but it was more by default than merit. 

 

You are right in that compared to other recent Buffalo drafts, this isn't as bad, but easily a forgettable draft if not for Williams.   Buffalo does get a decent draft grade on this on Williams alone though who actually outlasted most of the 1st rounders that year.

Edited December 30, 2018 by dgrochester55

[CoachT]

Zay jones went and got the ball back for kyle