Milton

Williams

The quietly productive defensive tackle was added to the injury report this week after practicing with a clean bill of health in Week 1. His consecutive limited participant designations are a positive sign for his Monday night availability. CB Isaiah Rodgers (hand) and LB Devin White (ankle) continued practicing in full. Backup LT Fred Johnson (thumb)

Williams (6'4/278) came through with a series of awesome athletic testing results, here. In addition to his strong 40-yard dash time, the Louisiana Tech product also put in superb marks in the vertical jump (38.5 inches), bench press (34 reps) and three-cone drill (6.93 seconds). As Pro Football Network’s Tony Pauline notes, just a handful of defensive backs (!) were sharper than Williams in the three-cone during last spring’s combine. Pauline is hearing third-round buzz on the lineman at this juncture, with Cincinnati and Dallas two teams to keep an eye on. All told, close to 60 scouts and team representatives were on hand for Louisiana Tech’s pro day.

Williams (6'4"/278) surprised some when he announced his intention to enter the NFL Draft back in January, but he turned some heads with an impressive showing at the EXOS pro day. Considered to be undersized as a 3-technique defensive lineman, Williams recorded a 4.63-second 40, 32 bench press reps and a 35-inch vertical. In Zierlein’s opinion, the Louisiana Tech lineman could shoot up draft boards with a similar performance at his school’s pro day. Williams has been given a fourth-round grade by Pro Football Network draft analyst Tony Pauline.

Williams is a bit of a stunning declaration. More often than not, Group of Five guys only tend to declare early when they are clear top-100 picks, if not outright first-round picks. Williams, on the other hand, is more of a borderline Day 3 pick who wants to bet on his development at the NFL level rather than sticking around one more year in college. At 6-foot-4 and 278-pounds, Williams is sized as a bit of a tweener between being a defensive tackle and a strong-side defense end, which could just land him in a five-tech role for an odd-front defense. Williams has earned 10 sacks over the past two seasons.