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Cincinnati Bengals offensive tackle Jonah Williams has a ton of pressure resting on his shoulders going into 2020.
Williams, technically going into his on-field rookie season after missing all of last year, is the man tasked with protecting No. 1 pick Joe Burrow from the left edge.
And he says the fact he gets to practice against an elite defensive line every day is a big part of the reason he’ll be ready, per Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com:
“We are not the only team not having pre-season games. Even if it’s a little bit slow to start off, I think all teams are going to go through that. I’m not worried about not having enough reps, though. I think two weeks of padded practices, let’s say the practices are two hours or so, you can get in hundreds and hundreds of reps in that amount of time. Our D-line is obviously one of the strengths of our team, so I think as an O-line we are going to be tested against the best in practice.”
Hard to disagree with Williams there. While every team indeed has to deal with the fact there won’t be a preseason this year, not every offenive line gets to practice against Geno Atkins, D.J. Reader, Carlos Dunlap, Carl Lawson, Sam Hubbard and Mike Daniels.
And this could go one step further — not every quarterback gets to practice improv on the fly while trying to stay away from these guys, either.
Williams has already impressed in camp merely by showing up with a transformed body that caught coaches a bit off guard. The fact he’s repping against an elite defensive line should give onlookers plenty of hope about his big debut.
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