Mike Williams: 'I'm going to be an original'
This is the time of year when we search for ways to describe NFL prospects. We wrack our mental highlight reels and try to define these football immigrants in terms all can understand, usually ending up with a Frankenstein's monster of a player, cobbled together with parts of others and hardly resembling the person we're trying to define.
Mike Williams has a solution to that: Don't do it. At least not with him. The wide receiver doesn't want to be told he's T.O. this, Randy that or something like Keyshawn. "I'm going to be an original," he says.
Given the path Williams has taken to the NFL draft, it makes sense not to define him in terms of others. No one has been through what he has, not even Maurice Clarett, the other player who banged on the league's door last year, only to be told by a federal judge to come back later. Now Williams is back, convinced you haven't seen anything like him. He likely will be selected in the top 10 on April 23 -- War Room scouts predict the Vikings will take him with the seventh pick.
"When I watch football, I can't think of any person I play like," he says, without a trace of arrogance. "When I establish myself, I want to establish me, not be a clone of anybody else."
So, who is Mike Williams?
He's not Randy
When some scouts describe Williams, they begin with his speed -- or lack thereof -- relative to some other NFL receivers. They point to the 40-yard dashes he ran at the NFL Scouting Combine in February and his individual workout March 10, all four of which fell in the 4.54-4.64 range. Hardly slow, but not blinding, either.
"I don't think anybody would call him a game breaker," says one AFC college scouting director. Williams (6-4 1⁄2, 229) doesn't blow past defensive backs or turn 6-yard hitch passes into 50-yard gains, as Oakland's Randy Moss can.
It might be unwise to expect 1,400 yards and 12 to 15 touchdowns from Williams, at least on a regular basis, but he isn't going to leave the field early when his team is losing, and he won't make obscene gestures to the crowd, get into shouting matches with coaches and teammates or take plays off. Williams' decision to run at the Combine gained him big points with scouts, coaches and general managers, who wanted to see if he was in shape and sharp after a year out of football.
"If he had not run at the Combine, that would have pissed a lot of people off," Packers college scouting director John Dorsey says. "He had to show the guys, 'I am who I am.' He did that, and it was a good thing."
Williams didn't even bring a pair of running shoes with him to the Combine, so he had to find former Washington State safety Hamza Abdullah, with whom he had trained at Chip Smith's Competitive Edge in suburban Atlanta, and bum a pair from him (they have the same shoe size). Credit Bengals coach Marvin Lewis and receivers coach Hue Jackson for spurring Williams to run.
At the end of Williams' interview with Cincinnati, during which Williams informed the team he wasn't running at the Combine, Jackson told him, "You carry yourself well, and people think you're a competitor. Why not prove it?" That did it. "He called me out," Williams says.
Williams put up times of 4.57 and 4.64, neither of which reminded anyone of Bob Hayes but which completed the profile on a player who impressed teams with his character during interviews and has a great college resume (176 catches, 14.6-yard average, 30 TDs in two seasons at USC). "He's a quality kid and a quality prospect," says an AFC scouting director. "And it was good for him to run because it shows he will compete any time they throw the balls out there."
He's not Keyshawn
When some NFL scouts describe Williams, they invoke Keyshawn Johnson, the former USC standout now with Dallas. They reason that a big guy who doesn't possess great speed will be a possession receiver comfortable in the middle of the field and able to overpower smaller defensive backs in one-on-one situations.
"Mike never professed to be a guy who would run a 4.3," says an AFC personnel director. "Anyone who has seen him play knows that. He's fast enough, gets open and is strong."
Williams is slightly taller and about 15 pounds heavier than Johnson. He also is faster, and there is little doubt he'll be a better teammate. After Williams' bid for early entry into the NFL was denied a year ago, he tried to become eligible again for the Trojans by attending classes and paying back any money he had received from his agent. It gave him an opportunity to clear some things up with the USC coaching staff and his teammates.
"Some things were said and reported when I decided to enter the draft," Williams says. "By going back, I could get around the guys and say, 'I didn't say this or that.' They know me. We grew up together as young men. They knew what they read had to be twisted. But it's different when you think things are a certain way and when a person tells you it directly."
Williams was set to play with the Trojans, but the NCAA denied his request. "I don't think I got screwed," he says. "Yes, it was a good human interest piece, but in reality, what I did (signing with an agent) broke the rules."
Williams stayed at USC for part of the '04 season, but it didn't take him long to realize it was time to move on.
"Every time I read the paper, it said, 'The Trojans are doing well without Mike Williams,' " he says. "I didn't want the team's success to be under my little cloud."
He's not T.O.
When USC squared off against Oklahoma for the national championship January 4, there were celebrities galore on the sidelines. But no Williams, who was in Atlanta watching the game at a fitness center. Williams had been hanging in the ATL since late October, sweating his way through a 16-week plan designed to have him at peak efficiency for the Combine and his personal workout. Not that anybody knew it. Once he left L.A., Williams laid low, training with Smith.
It was the anti-Terrell Owens approach to strength and conditioning training. Rather than calling attention to himself, as the Eagles' wideout has done unceasingly the past few seasons, Williams chose to labor quietly. And when he went to Miami to work with former NFL standout Cris Carter on route running and reading defenses, he did that stealthily, too.
Williams worked six days a week with Competitive Edge's staff -- running, lifting, stretching, swimming and catching passes. The solitary confinement gave Williams a chance to bond with Smith, who found that the best way to motivate Williams was to challenge him. So, Smith presented the performance levels Cardinals receiver Larry Fitzgerald had achieved the previous year and let his new pupil go after them.
"Money doesn't motivate him," Smith says. "He wants to be the best at his position."
In late December, other Smith clients moved in to prepare for their draft auditions. That allowed Williams to play football again, and he showed plenty during the workouts against live competition. One time, Williams ran a pattern up the left sideline, blanketed by a cornerback. The pass was thrown to the inside, but Williams reached over the defender with his right arm, tipped the ball up and caught it with his left hand without breaking stride.
"I saw that on a daily basis," Smith says. "It made me realize what a great receiver he is."
He is Mike Williams
It has been 15 months since Williams has played in a game, so it's tempting for some to consider him a risk. "No I'm not!" Williams says emphatically. And he's right. He is a man with substantial physical talent and a rock-solid support system that has helped teach him how to carry himself with confidence and respect for others. He won't shy away from competition, either, as he proved at the Combine.
Williams has just about everything he needs. He never has shown up on the police blotter, nor did he throw temper tantrums during his year in limbo. Any time you wonder whether he can play receiver in the NFL, just throw in a tape of the '03 game against Oregon State and watch him make that one-handed catch in the end zone.
The man can play. Now, it's time for him to play. His way.
