When Coach Sean Payton began the search for a defensive coordinator, he focused on finding a coach with experience, intensity, character and a track record of success built on teaching skills. Payton found those traits for the position in hiring Gregg Williams, who has been the leader of some of the NFL’s finest defenses of the last decade.

Williams, a 19-year coaching veteran in the NFL – including three seasons as a head coach and nine as a defensive coordinator – has a well-earned reputation around the league for producing sound, aggressive units.

He arrives in New Orleans following a one-year stint in Jacksonville as defensive coordinator/assistant head coach, where in 2008 the Jaguars held 10 opponents to 20 points or less. Williams spent the previous four seasons (2004-07) as assistant head coach/defense of the Washington Redskins.

Washington had one of the NFL’s top defenses over that span, allowing just 19.4 points per game and ranking sixth overall in defense during the four-season stretch. In 2007, the Redskins ranked eighth in the NFL in total defense, including allowing only 91.3 yards per game rushing.

In 2005, the Redskins defense was a key factor in the club making its first postseason appearance since 1999. Washington allowed under 19 points per contest that season – including a scant 11.7 over the final six games. In 2004, Williams made an immediate impact on a unit that had finished 24th the year before, with the Redskins’ defense improving to third in the NFL and forcing 26 turnovers.

Prior to joining the Redskins, Williams spent three seasons as head coach of the Buffalo Bills, where the defense improved each season. In 2003, the Bills ranked second in the league, jumping from 15th in 2002 and 21st in 2001. Overall in 2003, Buffalo’s defensive and special teams units finished among the NFL’s top five in nine categories.

His reputation as a defensive coach was forged in his years with Tennessee, where he served for 11 seasons (1990-2000), including as coordinator over his last four years with the club. Initially hired as a defensive quality control coach when the team was still located in Houston, he was promoted to special teams coach in 1993, and took over as linebackers coach from 1994-96 before being promoted to defensive coordinator in 1997.

The club made a steady climb to the top of the NFL’s defensive charts under Williams’ direction. In his first year as coordinator, the unit forced 32 turnovers. In 1998, Tennessee ranked in the top 10 against the run and held seven opponents to 14 points or less. The following year the Titans would march to Super Bowl XXXIV, force 39 turnovers and place DE Jevon Kearse and DT John Thornton on All-Rookie teams.

In 2000, the Titans led the NFL in total defense for the first time since joining the NFL and allowed 191 points – the third-fewest in league record books since the adoption of a 16-game schedule in 1978. Tennessee also set club records with 55 sacks, fewest passing yards allowed (2,424) and fewest touchdowns allowed (17). It completed a two-year stretch where the Titans posted an NFL-high 109 sacks.

Prior to arriving in the NFL, Williams was a graduate assistant at the University of Houston from 1988-89 under former NFL head coach Jack Pardee. From 1984-87, Williams was the head coach at Belton, Mo., High School after opening his coaching career at Excelsior Springs (Mo.) High School.

Williams graduated from Northeast Missouri State, where he played quarterback and also played baseball. He later earned a master’s degree from Central Missouri. He and his wife, Leigh Ann, have a daughter, Amy, and two sons, Blake and Chase.