Gregg Williams had essentially been fired by Sean Payton as defensive coordinator of the Saints months before the NFL suspended him indefinitely for his part in offering bounties for injuring opposing players, according to a source.

Williams had moved onto the same position with the Rams in January, but the source said Payton had told him that the Saints were moving in another direction.

New Orleans replaced Williams with Steve Spagnuolo. The Saints had believed that Williams' blitz heavy scheme had become too predictable.

"Well, yeah, teams knew we were going to be in a blitz 90 percent of the time, and they reacted accordingly," defensive tackle Sedrick Ellis said on Friday.

"The scheme is drastically different," linebacker Scott Shanle says. "Under Gregg, it was man blitz, or you're playing Cover 2. Now it's three-deep and a lot of zone blitzes – everything is opposite, really. And 'Spags' isn't a big rah-rah guy, which Gregg obviously was."

"There are a lot of things I like about it. It gives a defensive lineman the ability to go out and make plays. I'm excited about the coaches and the system," said Ellis.