Mike Williams Turning Heads, Like He Should Be

At this point in the offseason, every team’s fan base must take each proclamation of “this or that player has been turning heads“ with a grain of salt. Just like this site and any other content-based publication, puff pieces are necessary and are a natural part of journalism. However, it’s still a positive to see them at all because we could be the Ravens and, instead of receivers turning heads, they have Breshad Perriman dropping passes like clockwork.

Positive news is positive news is positive news. That’s all I’m getting at. And when it comes to a former first-round wide receiver who was a non-factor his rookie year, I’m sure you all will take what you can get.

According to Ricky Henne over at Chargers.com , last year’s first-round pick Mike Williams has been “making his presence felt at minicamp” over the last couple days.

In an interview with Williams following practice, he asked the young wideout what he was working on the most heading into his sophomore season. “My route depth”, he said.

This is an interesting answer to me as the usual answers are “my release” or “getting in and out of breaks faster”. Williams seems to be zoned in on what he believes will take his game to the next level.

For anyone confused, Williams likely means he wants to be better at the depth to which he runs and cuts out of his routes. For example, if he runs a hitch on the outside too deep when there is a corner route coming over the top, this would eat up the necessary space between the two routes and cause both to become covered.

If he was running a shallow crosser over the middle that was too shallow, he would likely not catch the middle linebackers attention, leaving him to cover the deep IN route which was supposed to be open as the second option.

It’s a variable not many fans think about when it comes to details in a receivers route-running but an important one, nonetheless.

Once again, it is awfully early in the off-season program to be getting ahead of ourselves, but it’s never too early to feel some optimism. Let’s just hope Williams continues to turn heads throughout the rest of the coming months, like a first-round talent is expected to.