Still in a waiting mode

• By SHELDON MICKLES
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Jan 10, 2009 - Page: 2C - UPDATED: 12:25 a.m.

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The New Orleans Saints could have to wait until Monday to resume their search for a defensive coordinator as a result of the NFC and AFC divisional playoff games being played today and Sunday.

Saints coach Sean Payton fired Gary Gibbs on Wednesday, then started the search for his replacement by interviewing longtime NFL defensive coordinator Gregg Williams on Thursday.

The 50-year-old Williams, a former Buffalo Bills head coach, was the assistant head coach/defensive coordinator for the Jacksonville Jaguars last season.

A 19-year NFL coaching veteran, Williams has been a coordinator with Tennessee (1997-2000), Washington (2004-07) and Jacksonville (2008).

Williams, the architect of the defense that helped the Titans advance to Super Bowl XXXIV in 1999, was expected to visit Friday with Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy about their opening as well. Williams is likely on the radar of the Houston Texans, too.

E-mails to Saints General Manager Mickey Loomis and team spokesman Greg Bensel about visits with potential candidates for the defensive coordinator job were not returned Friday.

Among the coaches who might be considered are former San Francisco 49ers coach Mike Nolan, former Detroit Lions coach Rod Marinelli and ex-Cleveland Browns coach Romeo Crennel. All three were fired this season.

Among assistants who might be on the Saints radar are Tennessee linebackers coach Dave McGinnis, the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals from 2000-03; Washington secondary coach Jerry Gray; and Philadelphia secondary coach Sean McDermott, who, since 1999, has worked under one of the NFL’s top defensive coordinators in Jim Johnson.

Bush on the mend
Running back Reggie Bush, who had microfracture surgery on his left knee in mid-December, said he was surprised the procedure caused such a stir.

The Saints originally said Bush sprained the medial collateral ligament in his left knee, the fourth injury to that knee in 12 months, in a Dec. 11 game at Chicago. But it wasn’t until a Dec. 29 season-ending news conference that coach Payton acknowledged Bush had surgery.

On Tuesday, Loomis told the New Orleans Times-Picayune that Bush had microfracture surgery. By the next day, Loomis and Bush said the surgery was less serious than many people perceived it to be — which was because of the term “microfracture.”

While some microfracture techniques were used, Bush said Dr. James Andrews did a “clean-up” procedure to smooth out the cartilage.

Bush told the paper on Wednesday that he was off crutches less than two weeks after the arthroscopic procedure and is already working out.