EX-BILLS HEAD COACH

CLEVELAND • Gregg Williams revived his coaching career after shame and suspension.

His next challenge: Repairing Cleveland’s leaky defence.

Williams was hired Sunday as the Browns defensive co-ordinator, replacing Ray Horton, fired by coach Hue Jackson less than a week after Cleveland concluded a 1-15 season.

Williams was banned by the NFL for one season in 2012 season for his involvement in New Orleans’ notorious “Bountygate” scandal. He spent the past three seasons with Los Angeles.

It’s the second time Horton has been dismissed by the Browns after one season, and while he appears to be the one taking the fall for the team’s failure, Jackson said that’s not the case.

Jackson said he “agonized” over the decision and understands that Horton looks like a convenient scapegoat.

“This isn’t just Ray,” Jackson said on a teleconference. “If anybody, the finger is pointed back at me, it’s not pointed at Ray.

“At the end of the day, the whole buck stops with me, so I get it. I know what it looks like and what the perception is, but that’s not what it is and this is my decision.

“This is through my time of thinking through what’s going to be best moving forward for our football team and where I wanted to take it and what I thought we needed to do to get there.”

Jackson expects there will be other changes on the defensive side as Williams brings in some assistants.

As for Cleveland’s offence, Jackson said he’s “comfortable” that associate head coach Pep Hamilton will stay with the team. Hamilton is considering a position on Jim Harbaugh’s staff at Michigan. Hamilton previously worked with Harbaugh at Stanford.

The 58-year-old Williams, who coached Buffalo from 2001 to 2003, will take over a young defence that didn’t make enough big plays in 2016 and finished at the bottom or close to it in every meaningful defensive category.

“He is one of the better co-ordinators in the National Football League, and I think that is proven,” Jackson said.

Williams had a solid three-year run as defensive co-ordinator of the Los Angeles Rams, re-establishing him as one of the league’s best defensive minds and helping distance him from a notorious ban in 2012.

The league banned him for his role in New Orleans’ pay-for-performance scandal. Williams apologized for his actions, served his penalty and returned as a defensive assistant with Tennessee before he was hired by Jeff Fisher.

Jackson applauded Williams’ ability to learn from the experience.

“It says that he is a guy who put his head down and went back to work and went back to doing what he is extremely good at, which is coaching defence,” he said.