St. Louis Rams coach Jeff Fisher said Tuesday he will take a more active role in running the team's defense, with coordinator Gregg Williams banned indefinitely for his role in the New Orleans Saints' "bounty" program.
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"For obvious reasons, I'll be a little more involved than I had planned on, but that's OK," Fisher told reporters in St. Louis as the Rams worked out. "There's time for that."
The Rams hired Williams during the offseason, but he was banned by the NFL after it discovered he had been running a bounty program, in which players were promised cash rewards for injuring players, from 2009 to 2011 when he was the Saints' defensive coordinator.
Fisher praised his staff for being able to handle Williams' unexpected absence.
"The staff has done a great job adjusting, everything's good and installed," Fisher said. "As you were able to see, the defense is running around, we were in multiple coverages and fronts up there, so things are going fine."
Fisher added that he hasn't talked to linebacker Jo-Lonn Dunbar, a free-agent acquisition who was with the Saints during the time when Williams oversaw the bounty program, about any potential discipline Dunbar might face. Fisher said he's waiting for further direction from the league, which has yet to announce punishments for individual players who were involved with the program.
"He's a very, very good young man and is a very talented player, so we'll just wait to see what happens," Fisher said of Dunbar.
