Top 20 NFL Sooners, No. 3: Trent Williams
In the past 20 years, the Oklahoma Sooners have experienced arguably their most productive era ever in the NFL Draft.
From the 2000 to 2019 drafts — the entirety of the Bob Stoops and Lincoln Riley years — OU has had 95 players drafted.
Using today’s 7-round comparison, that’s more than any other two-decade era in school history. In the 1970s and ‘80s, OU had 131 players drafted, but only 88 were selected in the first seven rounds.
In the last 20 years, the Sooners have produced some historically good players. Every day leading up to this year’s NFL Draft (April 23-25), SI Sooners presents the Top 20 NFL Sooners of the last 20 years.
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Trent Williams got to Oklahoma with little hope of playing for the Sooners — at least not early.
The 6-foot-5, 290-pound Williams hadn’t had much experience as a pass blocker at Longview (Texas) High. Sooner wideout Malcolm Kelly had come through the year before, but Kelly’s routes weren’t all that sophisticated — mostly go routes. And then during Williams’ senior year, Longview threw the football only when necessary.
And then a glance at the Sooners’ signing day list in 2006 illustrates what practically everyone else thought of Williams’ chances of playing at OU.
Williams was widely regarded the Sooners’ lowest-rated offensive line prospect in that year’s class. According to Scout, he was the nation’s 56th-ranked offensive lineman. Per Rivals, he was the 28th-best offensive guard in the country.
That ranked behind Curtis Bailey (Scout’s No. 29 o-lineman nationally), Chase Beeler (Rivals’ No. 22 offensive guard), Cory Brandon (Scout’s No. 21 offensive lineman) and junior college transfer Brandon Walker (Rivals’ No. 12 JC player in the nation).
Walker played a lot in his three seasons. Brandon played some early and less late. Beeler saw action in five games in 2006 before transferring to Stanford, where he became a three-year starter. Bailey never lettered at OU.
And yet it’s Williams who carved out a spectacular career in the National Football League, Williams who only a few years ago became the highest-paid offensive tackle in the game, Williams who’s still playing football nine years later, Williams who was voted to seven consecutive Pro Bowls.
Williams was part of the Sooners’ famed draft class of 2010, when quarterback Sam Bradford went No. 1 to the Rams, Gerald McCoy went No. 3 to the Buccaneers, and Williams went No. 4 to the Redskins. (Nebraska’s Ndamukong Suh broke up the party when he went No. 2 to the Lions.
It remains the only time three college teammates were taken within the first four NFL picks.
Williams — technically the only player in that top four with his same team — has started 119 of the 120 NFL games in which he’s played. In addition to his seven Pro Bowls, he also made NFL Network's Top 100 NFL Players list seven years in a row. In 2018, Williams didn't allow a sack in 363 pass attempts.
His most recent game, however, was in 2018, as he sat out all of last season due to a dispute over how the team treated a medical issue.
Despite Williams’ ongoing dispute, the team has not granted his wish to be released. He spent last season on the did not report/non-football injury list.
Williams, who has played in two playoff games (2012 and 2015), got to the NFL before the rookie wage cap, so he got a six-year, $60 million deal. In August 2015, Washington rewarded Williams with the largest contract ever for an NFL offensive lineman — five years, $66 million. The deal included an $8.5 million signing bonus, a $10 million option in 2016 and $43.25 million in guaranteed money.
The Redskins fell in love with Williams at the NFL Scouting Combine, when he ran the 40 in 4.81 seconds at at 6-5 and 315 pounds.
As a freshman at OU, Williams sat the bench behind right tackle Branndon Braxton, but when Braxton broke his leg midway through the season, Williams took over. Williams started six games at right tackle in 2007, and in 2008 he earned first-team All-Big 12 honors at right tackle while Phil Loadholt was first-team All-Big 12 on the left side.
As a senior, Williams switched to left tackle and became a consensus first-team All-American, the sole returner from the record-setting unit of 2008 and anchor of an offense that lacked identity as Bradford, Jermaine Gresham and others suffered season-ending injuries.
Williams missed that year’s Bedlam game with a concussion, then lined up at center for the Sooners’ Sun Bowl victory over Stanford.
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Our Top 20 list was chosen by five voters: SI Sooners publisher John Hoover, deputy editor Parker Thune, long-time OU fan and amateur Sooner historian Anthony Jumper, OU school of journalism student Caroline Grace, and OU history and stats expert Steven Smith (aka Blinkin Riley).
The criteria was simple: former Sooners who played at OU during the last 20 years and went on to an NFL career. The rest, i.e, their NFL career, was purely subjective. Players received 20 points for a first-place vote, 19 for second, etc., down to 1 point for 20th. A total of 28 players received votes.
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