Carter's Classroom draft profile: Marcus Williams, safety

While the Steelers consider their options available in the later parts in rounds they have to factor in the possibility of having to look at positions on defense that don't involve their primary concerns.

Why? Because at the 30th pick, there are 29 teams ahead of the Steelers that are also looking at premier pass rushers and good prospects at inside linebacker. Those two positions are of the most important immediate issues which the Steelers need to address in the coming draft.

But if all the first and second round talent is gone at those positions, it would be wise of the Steelers to invest in a different spot on defense into players that might be more worthy of a late first or second round selection rather than reaching for a linebacker that could be selected in the middle parts of the second or third round.

Sean Davis was a solid addition to the Steelers' defense at safety and looks like a good partner with Mike Mitchell in the secondary. But with Mitchell at the age of 29 and his impact on the salary cap increasing from roughly $4 million to $8.1 million, the Steelers may be wise to look to find his successor soon.

This draft class has multiple talents at defensive back which could become good starters in the NFL within their first few seasons. The Steelers would just need an athletic player that could play behind Davis and Mitchell, learn the defense, and eventually be groomed into being Davis' long-time partner in the secondary.

Considering Davis can play both deep safety and in the box, we are going to keep consideration open for either type of safety as a potential companion. But players like Malik Hooker, Jamal Adams and most likely Jabril Peppers will be long gone by the time the Steelers' pick comes around.

This leads us to the centerfield style free safety from the Utah Utes, Marcus Williams:



Williams posted a solid numbers in both his sophomore and junior years at Utah before deciding to enter the NFL draft this year. He recorded five interceptions in both seasons, along with eight total passes defensed. His style of play was always as the high safety for Utah, allowing him to watch the eyes of the quarterback and move laterally about the deepest part of the field to monitor the deep pass.

His ball skills illuminate a decent highlight tape with his ten career interceptions in the NCAA, and they compliment the athleticism he boasted both on tape and at the combine nicely.

His 4.56 forty yard dash time isn't elite speed, but it's fast enough for the role he plays on defense. In comparison, Ed Reed's time was a 4.57. But what Williams did excel in was both the vertical and broad jump events. His vertical was the second best, only behind Connecticut's Obi Melifonwu, and his broad jump was for 10' 9" which gave him third place among safeties.

He also placed in the top five for the 3-cone drill, and second in the 60 yard shuttle.

Point being, Williams is an athletic safety that can be an asset playing deep coverage. His 6' 1" 202 lbs. frame also fits the bill of what NFL teams look for in deep safeties. So let's get into the tape on him:

CENTERFIELD SKILLS

When we call a deep safety a centerfielder, it's because the skill to read and react to both what the receivers are running and where the quarterback is looking is a special talent.

Williams is one of the best prospects at playing centerfield in a defense, as his back-to-back seasons with five interceptions showed. What's really exciting about his tape how he can play conservative in the middle of the field by staying disciplined to his spot but still break on a deep ball quickly and smoothly.

Watch how he nabs this interception on the deep route, adjusting to the ball while it's in the air:



Williams came to Utah from Califronia as a 3-star recruit, but he was a gem of a player because he could be left out alone in deep coverage and be responsible for covering a great deal of space. His ball skills make him appear sometimes as if he's the receiver with how comfortably he moves into position and makes interceptions.

GOOD IN SPACE

Williams is comfortable being assigned to cover lots of ground and is good at reading and adjusting to what quarterbacks are doing, as well as baiting them into traps.

Watch how he rolls with the running quarterback and then beautifully cuts back to the center of the field to make an interception on what was the correct read for the quarterback:



Williams won't bump up and run with receivers all around the field, but he will fill his role of a deep safety consistently. His speed is deceptive and he can turn from playing conservatively into a ballhawk effortlessly.

These are all coverage traits NFL teams will like to see playing behind their blitz packages and protecting from big plays but also capitalizing on the riskier deep throws.

CONSERVATIVE TACKLER

Williams' size lends to the notion that he could be good against the run. But he's not the aggressive type of safety you see flying to the line of scrimmage and trying to knock out opponents.

His style of play is to work into position with good feet, square up with his shoulders and make a form tackle on his opponent. Watch he does just that, even when the ball carrier is the quarterback in open space:


Williams is almost the antithesis of Mitchell in this sense as Mitchell does make good form tackles but will lower his shoulder and look to punish ball carriers. Instead, Williams looks to be in position, wrap his arms around his opponent and try to bring them down.

That leads to problems against hard running players though as Williams has been known to get dragged for extra yardage at times. Watch his conservative approach and how he looks to wrap his opponent instead of delivering a big hit:


It works out here because he has help, but there were multiple instances when it backfired. It's nice to have players that want to use fundamentals, but Williams will need to compound that with extra work in the weight room to be better in run support for the NFL.

STEELERS' STOCK

Williams' talent places him in an interesting situation for the Steelers. He's definitely not a first round talent, but also is someone that could find himself being selected in the middle of the second round. What will determine that is the talent that goes in front of him.

He's a natural centerfielder of a safety, playing the pass well and ballhawking for big turnovers on deep passes. That's an asset much needed and his length combined with the height he showed he could reach in both jump events at the combine means he could contend with the larger NFL receivers for jump balls.

However there are more natural talents at safety in Adams and Hooker that will definitely come off the board in the first round. Josh Jones is a faster option from NC State and Peppers was a Heisman candidate with great speed and decent football skills.

Melifonwu is a much larger option with a hair more speed as well as the option to play as a slot cornerback or in the box against the run.

Williams will rank somewhere after Melifonwu along with Jones and Budda Baker as the lower half of the second tier of safeties in this draft. That's not a slight either, as the talent at safety is deep in this draft.

Because Davis is a safety capable of playing in the box and lining up with tight ends and receivers, Williams could be a decent companion for him after Mitchell's talents fade over the next two to three seasons.

It would also be a serious change of pace for the natural free safety position with the Steelers, as their past several starting free safeties have been less of ballhawks and more of heavy-hitting punishers like Mitchell, Ryan Clark and Chris Hope, who think hit first, intercept second.

However, the Steelers have shown there is merit to having a player such as this in the secondary as that style of play was a piece to their decade long run of being one of the best defensive units in the NFL.

Williams will be there at 30, but the Steelers probably wouldn't spend on him at that point. If anything, they might take a shot at Melifonwu or Peppers, but also could pass on those players while they look at linebackers like Jarrad Davis and Tim Williams.

If Williams floats around in the later part of the second round, the Steelers may take a stab as his value would most likely make him a player worthy of a pick earlier in the draft and a potential steal for the Steelers.

But that's also presuming the team doesn't see another immediate need they could fill with that second round pick.