[jwplayer UO045H78-ThvAeFxT]
New Orleans Saints free safety Marcus Williams has a bad rap among some fans. It’s because there’s this perception that he plays small in big moments — like his whiffed tackles on deep passes in last season’s loss to the San Francisco 49ers. There have been a handful of mistakes in critical moments from the 23-year-old starter, and a vocal contingent in Saints social media circles and fan forums are determined to zero in on those few bad plays against the 2,800-plus other snaps Williams has seen since the Saints drafted him.
To hear them tell it, Williams is an unreliable player who should be traded at the first opportunity. However, the analysts at Pro Football Focus are here to sweep that misconception away. Their snap-by-snap grading proved Williams isn’t just a good player; he’s one of the NFL’s best, ranking at No. 38 on their list of the top 101 players of 2019:
This season saw Marcus Williams return to the level of play that we saw from him as a rookie, and he ended the season with an overall PFF grade of 88.9. Williams was once again excellent in coverage and against the run, notching four interceptions and six pass breakups over the year. He also recorded 12 defensive stops, which is more than his previous two seasons in the league combined. He makes the PFF Top 101 for the first time in his career this season.
How’s that for busting a narrative? As the writeup suggests, Williams is a top-notch coverage safety around the league and has made improvements in run defense. It’s something that should have been expected, given the rare range Williams is gifted with as someone who can run from one sideline to the other with ease. What’s important is that Williams has successfully bounced back from a bad play that could have defined him: the Minneapolis Miracle, when he missed a last-second tackle to allow the game-winning score.
That’s how Williams’ 2017 rookie year ended. 2018 was supposed to have been the revenge tour, when he would develop into a game-changing weapon in the secondary. That didn’t happen, with the young safety visibly hesitating to bite on passes that he could have intercepted. It took a full season for Williams to put those bad vibes behind him, but now we can say with confidence that he’s arrived.
What happens next is unclear. Williams is headed for a contract year, and is one of the best and youngest players at his position. He’s tied Chicago Bears starter Eddie Jackson in interceptions (10) since 2017, and Jackson just set the market for safety contracts on a four-year, $58 million deal. Williams has rarely left the field for the Saints and has too often been the only defensive back making plays (his 10 career interceptions lead all Saints players from 2010 to 2019, by the way, and he’s only been in the league for three years).
He might be someone the Saints need to look at re-signing before his asking price rises even higher. Sure, he has some warts to his game — he must become a more consistent tackler, even if his missed tackle rate last year (14.5%) was near-average for his position. But the key takeaway here is that Williams is an ascendant talent, and his good plays outweigh his bad moments by a very, very wide margin. His game tape makes that obvious. Anyone telling you differently hasn’t put in the work to know.
[vertical-gallery id=28101]