Third-Round Pick Garrett Williams Looks to Prove Cardinals Right
TEMPE -- The Arizona Cardinals' newest draft selection isn't exactly ready to go, but he will be soon.
Syracuse DB Garrett Williams - taken with the No. 72 pick in the 2023 NFL Draft - is still recovering from a torn ACL suffered in late October of 2022. Should he have finished the season healthy, many expected Williams to be drafted somewhere in the realm of the second round.
"I should be ready by July is what the doctor was saying. Everything else I'll leave up to the training staff in Arizona, things like that. But I feel really good about where I'm at in my rehab and recovery," said Williams. "Everybody I'm working with have been really impressed about the things I've been able to do and just how hard I'm going at it."
Williams allowed zero penalties in coverage of his final two years at Syracuse. Pro Football Focus says what Williams has is "uncoachable" in terms of talent, making him a top-five talent at the position.
So when Williams went down with a season-ending injury, he took accepted the challenge to battle through adversity.
"It was pretty stressful at first, but once it got to the point [where] things were gonna happen how they were. For me, my biggest thing was just controlling what I can control. So when it came to going to the combine doing interviews, top 30 visits, being the best person to interview, being the best one at that [was important]," says Williams.
"I can't compete physically, but I need to show that I'm sharper than anybody else when it comes to knowing the game and my knowledge of those around me and things like that. So that's what I prioritized and then after I did that, I was very comfortable. I knew things were gonna kind of play out how they did, so you can't really stress when you can't control certain things.
"After like the second visit, I started bringing all my stuff I need to do to rehab so when I fly in that night, I just found the hotel gym and I just do my exercise and workout there so that way I didn't miss days and things like that. I try to stay on track as much as I could, even though I didn't have as many resources as usual."
Williams arrives to a Cardinals cornerback room with Marco Wilson and Antonio Hamilton as the top players on the depth chart. When healthy, he could easily emerge as the team's starter.
Yet that's a lofty goal, one better left for down the road, especially for a rookie. Williams said he aims to simply get back on the field and tweaking some technique.
"Get healthy, that's the biggest thing for me. But also I want to improve my press technique," Williams said. "Being more consistent as a tackler, I always come with really good intention but I think I just need to keep bringing my feet every time I come to tackle and come to battle. I think if I do that, then I'll be in pretty good shape.
"I feel I can do anything coach asks me to do. I feel like we played a lot of zone this past year at Syracuse but my redshirt freshman year, we played man a lot and I pressed a lot and I did very well at it. So I feel I can do anything a coach asks me to do."
There were plenty of interested teams, yet the Cardinals came were the one to eventually pull the trigger on Williams in the third round.
"I felt really good about me with the Cardinals. Me and coach [Jonathan] Gannon, we were talking the same language. A lot of things that we were taught at Syracuse and defensively it's kind of what we're doing here in Arizona coming up. Me and coach Gannon really hit it off once we realized that me and him were kind of on the same page," said Williams.
"Started from the combine. That formal meeting I really felt super comfortable with the whole staff. It was by far my best visit where I felt most comfortable with everybody."
Now officially on an NFL roster, Williams simply wants to prove the Cardinals right.
"Without a doubt, I think they believe in what I can be, and what I am when I'm healthy. I just can't wait to get fully healthy and show them they're exactly right on the pick they made," Williams said.
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