Nohl Williams Embraces Year 2 Hype Ahead of Training Camp

The Kansas City Chiefs' 2025 rookie class delivered on some of its early buzz, but there's more development that needs to take place in order for some selections to be truly justified.

Cornerback Nohl Williams is a perfect example of that. The third-round pick flashed high-level traits in his debut campaign, bringing with it considerable pressure to follow up with even more impressive output in year two.

Fortunately for Williams, he seems to be embracing those expectations. Speaking to the media following mandatory minicamp, the UNLV and Cal product said he's feeling more settled in during offseason No. 2.

"For sure way more comfortable than last year," Williams said. "I'd say the terminology's easier [and] it's more ingrained into my brain now. Scheme, second year in the defense, you should catch on or you're not studying."

Williams described his rookie-year performance as "up and down," yet it's something he's proud of nonetheless. He has technical aspects he wants to continue to fine-tune and, similar to fellow draft classmate Josh Simmons, he's also seeking a higher understanding of opposing defenses.

"Just working on my feet at the line of scrimmage," Williams said. "Still working on formation recognition. Just being a football IQ guy, knowing what's going to happen before it happens."

In many ways, Williams's first year in Kansas City can be split into two seasons. In Weeks 1-13, the No. 85 overall selection logged 155 defensive snaps — averaging 22.2% of those available. Those contests saw him log 25 tackles (none for loss) and three passes broken up.

To close out the season, though, Williams got way more involved. He had 302 defensive snaps in Weeks 14-18, 88% of available reps, and notched 23 more tackles (four for loss), four passes broken up and his first NFL sack. In his final two games of the 2025-26 campaign, he earned Pro Football Focus grades of 82.5 and 82.1, respectively, for overall defense.

Keeping it with the latter theme, Williams was an advanced stats darling in his initial professional season. His 74.5 PFF grade was 15th out of 114 qualified corners, and he had favorable rankings across the board for coverage (12th), pass rush (15th) and run defense (19th). Toss in a respectable 82.9 passer rating yielded in coverage, and there's a nice resume to behold.

With that production and profile comes a high bar for Williams to live up to. The Chiefs' current cornerback room is headlined by first-round rookie Mansoor Delane, but there's a seemingly wide-open battle for the other starting job opposite him.

Can Williams edge out veteran Kristian Fulton for the gig? How does the recent acquisition of L'Jarius Sneed in a homecoming move impact the race? July's training camp will go a long way towards revealing that answer.

In the interim, Williams is going about his normal routine and planning to let his work do the talking once it's time to translate back to the practice or game field.

"I'm still attacking it the same," Williams said. "Attack it even harder now. I'd be lying if [I said I didn't know] they expect a lot from me, but I'm ready for it. I'm prepared and am going to keep preparing, still, in the offseason and going into training camp. Just got to keep preparing."

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