Packers bolster OLB depth by claiming former Alabama standout

Tim Williams had only two sacks in two-plus seasons with the Ravens.

With heavy workloads for starters Za’Darius Smith and Preston Smith and with Kyler Fackrell making almost no impact after his breakout third season and now on the injury report, the Green Bay Packers grabbed outside linebacker Tim Williams off waivers from the Baltimore Ravens on Wednesday, a source confirmed.

A third-round pick out of Alabama in 2017, Williams had played in only 19 games and collected two sacks. In four games this season, Williams had played 75 defensive snaps with zero sacks, zero quarterback pressures and two tackles. Williams played just seven snaps vs. Cleveland on Sunday.

His career was slowed by a knee injury in 2017 and an ankle injury in 2018. Both career sacks and seven quarterback pressures came last season.

The Packers need help at a critical position. Through the first four games of this season, Preston Smith has played 89.3 percent of the defensive snaps and Za’Darius Smith has played 83.8 percent of the snaps, despite being slowed by a knee injury. In the first three games, they combined for 7.5 sacks and 19 quarterback hits, according to the coaches' count. Against Philadelphia on Thursday, they had zero sacks and four hits.

At Alabama, Williams had 9.5 sacks and 11.5 tackles for losses as a junior and nine sacks, 16 tackles for losses and two forced fumbles as a senior, but the production didn’t translate to the NFL.

Milt Hendrickson, the Packers’ director of football operations, spent the 2005 through 2018 seasons with the Ravens.

With the free-agent departures of Za’Darius Smith and Terrell Suggs (to Arizona), the door was open for Williams to make his mark this season. Instead, veteran Pernell McPhee won the starting job opposite Matthew Judon and Williams went from playing some to hardly at all.

“No,” Harbaugh answered recently when asked if he was happy with the progress of third-year players Williams and Tyus Bowser. "We need to get more pressure, more sacks from those guys. They’ll probably tell you they need more reps. I would say earn more reps by doing something about it.”

Fackrell has zero sacks this season after a career-high 10.5 last season. He didn’t practice on Wednesday due to a shoulder injury.