GBN: Jason Williams is their "travellin' man"

[Box_O_Rocks]

Great Blue North Draft Report

Saturday, April 11:... Travellin' man... Jason Williams, OLB, Western Illinois; 6-1, 241, 4.45.… No player has made a more dramatic rise on draft boards around the NFL than the Leathernecks’ Williams who has gone from a likely free agent afterthought to a legitimate mid-round prospect in just a couple of months. Indeed, with 11 stops on his calendar already, Williams may be making more pre-draft visits to NFL team HQs this month than any other player in the 2009 draft class. For the record, Williams will visit, or has visited Seattle, Cleveland, Jacksonville, Green Bay, Dallas, Minnesota, New England, Miami, Indianapolis, Tennessee and the Jets.

GBN will be profiling a sleeper a day up to the draft...

 

[DW Toys]

Great Blue North Draft ReportGBN will be profiling a sleeper a day up to the draft...

Can he be an ILB? He has more speed on paper than Mayo.
DW Toys

 

[mayoclinic]

Can he be an ILB? He has more speed on paper than Mayo.
DW Toys

It's been tossed around, with Box being the point man in bringing him to the board's attention. I haven't been able to see enough of him on film to form a firm opinion, but I'm intrigued, and think he's one of the more interesting day 2 possibilities.

 

[WaterfallJumper]

Williams tested on par with Mayo in every category, and even outperformed him in some metrics. He's fast, good in coverage, and was super-productive in coverage. He's also about identical in size to Mayo. His scouting profile, ironically, is almost identical to Mayo's profile last year--nearly word for word at times. The big concern is his ability to stack and shed, but to be honest, Mayo wasn't exactly that great at it coming out of college, and is still working on that part of his game. He's turned out pretty well, I think.

Now, traditionally, he projects more as a WILL than a SAM, but what if our defensive philosophy is changing from thumpers and run stuffers to all-around talents who are capable of shutting down TEs and RBs in coverage, but are also able to sniff out a play, flow to the ball, and make a strong, sure tackle? As I see it, Williams' ability to take on blockers (or more precisely, BB's estimation of Williams' ability to learn this skill) determines whether or not we draft him.

One last thought. Don't we already have a linebacker on the roster who rated higher than Mayo in every metric? He hasn't exactly blown it up; do we really need another? Williams will have to be a special talent to warrant consideration.

 

[mayoclinic]

Here's another write up on Williams:

OLB, Jason Williams, WesternIllinois - Mile High Report

I would agree with Reamer that he's not a "thumper" SILB type, but he may be a nice complement to Mayo as more of a "poor man's Brandon Spikes" type.

 

[WaterfallJumper]

Please, call me Andrew. Reamer is just an allusion to a book I'm writing.

I really do see Williams as a poor man's Spikes, who is my absolute favorite LB in next year's draft. I'd hoped he would come out this year, actually, but I don't mind waiting. He's actually the primary reason I hope we trade one of our first four picks for a first next year, though he may have an exceptional senior campaign and price himself out of our range.

My biggest question right now is whether or not Williams is an upgrade over Guyton, who we didn't even draft last year. I see them as similar players, though Williams is slightly better in coverage and apparently has better instincts. Also, his career tackles for a loss are quite good for an inside linebacker. Maybe he's a better downhill player than I give him credit for?

I'd be happy with him from pick 97 on, I think.

 

[mayoclinic]

Please, call me Andrew. Reamer is just an allusion to a book I'm writing.

I really do see Williams as a poor man's Spikes, who is my absolute favorite LB in next year's draft. I'd hoped he would come out this year, actually, but I don't mind waiting. He's actually the primary reason I hope we trade one of our first four picks for a first next year, though he may have an exceptional senior campaign and price himself out of our range.

My biggest question right now is whether or not Williams is an upgrade over Guyton, who we didn't even draft last year. I see them as similar players, though Williams is slightly better in coverage and apparently has better instincts. Also, his career tackles for a loss are quite good for an inside linebacker. Maybe he's a better downhill player than I give him credit for?

I'd be happy with him from pick 97 on, I think.

Spikes was my dream SILB partner for Mayo. Spikes and Ndamukong Suh were my two frontrunners for the 23 pick; both went back to school; both will probably be out of our range next year unless we pick up an extra first rounder. Eric Norwood is my sleeper pick as a possible SILB next year.

I'd be happy to go for Williams in the 89-124 range as a potential "poor man's Spikes" if the FO liked him. I see Guyton as being a terrific rotational guy backing up both SILB and WILB over time, but not as a long term ideal starter at SILB.

 

[Seneschal2]

It's been tossed around, with Box being the point man in bringing him to the board's attention.

Based on your short memory perhaps -- but not true at all.

 

[mgteich]

I like Williams but he won't be drafted if it is questionable whether he projects to better than Guyton.

Please, call me Andrew. Reamer is just an allusion to a book I'm writing.

I really do see Williams as a poor man's Spikes, who is my absolute favorite LB in next year's draft. I'd hoped he would come out this year, actually, but I don't mind waiting. He's actually the primary reason I hope we trade one of our first four picks for a first next year, though he may have an exceptional senior campaign and price himself out of our range.

My biggest question right now is whether or not Williams is an upgrade over Guyton, who we didn't even draft last year. I see them as similar players, though Williams is slightly better in coverage and apparently has better instincts. Also, his career tackles for a loss are quite good for an inside linebacker. Maybe he's a better downhill player than I give him credit for?

I'd be happy with him from pick 97 on, I think.

 

[BritPat]

I like Williams but he won't be drafted if it is questionable whether he projects to better than Guyton.

Guyton projected as a mid-round prospect last year (saw one Mock with him going in the third round IIRC), but wasn't drafted largely because he didn't play in one set position in College which teams were wary of. It sounds like Williams has.

I think a lot of teams, especially Tampa 2 teams, probably look at Guyton now and wish they had him, because he projects superbly to a Will (and possible Mike) in that system. There's several teams with needs at LB this year, and there could be a big run on them mid-round, if we want Williams, we could end up having to take him then.

 

[VJCPatriot]

I could see Jason Williams as a 3rd round pick for the Pats. Offers great speed and athleticism. He also has the college production.

TACKLES  g  ua  a total tfl  pd ff fr blk 
2005     10 14  9   23  1.0  0   0 0  1 
2006     11 41  51  92  10.5 3   3 0  0 
2007     11 42  65  107 16.5 4   5 2  0 
2008     11 39  28  67  14.5 6   6 0  0 
TOTAL    43 136 153 289 42.5 13 14 2  1

I especially like his tackle for loss, pass deflection, and forced fumbles numbers. It looks like this guy made things happen on defense in all areas - tackling, pass defense, and forcing turnovers.

 

[Box_O_Rocks]

I project Williams to ILB, perhaps playing behind Guyton while he gets stronger and develops his hands for stack and shed. With his speed and quickness, he may have a talent for sliding around OL the way Bruschi did in his glory days, I've only ever seen him play in the Shrine Game and he didn't get much opportunity to stack OL in that game, though he did stack up a TE nicely, he just didn't shed him fast enough. I can see him drafted with the #58 pick if BB thinks this is the kid to team with Mayo and Guyton.

Speaking of the latter two; a poster on my other forum met them at the game store in Patriots Place where the two were playing games against each other and other gamers. She got Mayo's signature on the new jersey she had just bought and spoke as to how they both looked like kids, Guyton especially looked 14. She posted a couple pictures of them playing and I'm psyched to see those two who played so well as rookies out and about together - that camaraderie hopefully extends to film sessions and grilling the coach together.