NFL Draft: Williams gearing up for pros

Editor’s note: This is the second part in The Pitt News’ series of profiles… Editor’s note: This is the second part in The Pitt News’ series of profiles on the eight Panthers who are entering the NFL Draft, which takes place next weekend in New York.

Pitt senior Mick Williams is 6’1” tall and weighs 285 pounds. But that’s not big enough.

Williams has been a standout defensive tackle for the Panthers for the past few seasons, and he will be eligible for next week’s NFL Draft.

According to his agent, his defensive skills are exceptional, and his determination certainly isn’t lacking.

The one thing that is lacking, however, is height. That will be the one thing to blame if he isn’t drafted next weekend.

“I didn’t know I was getting drafted for the NBA,” Williams said. “I didn’t know that height mattered that much in football, especially when you’re defensive player of the year.”

Williams was named the Big East Co-Defensive Player of the Year, an honor he shared with teammate Greg Romeus, a junior defensive end.

As much as Williams would like to be drafted, he knows he can make the NFL whether or not his name is called next weekend.

“It’s not about April for me. It’s about September,” he said. “I know people who got drafted in the third round but got cut.”

“[Williams] doesn’t have the ideal ‘measurables’ that you would see in a defensive tackle around the NFL,” Drew Smith, Williams’ agent, said. “So he hasn’t gotten the love that some of the other guys around the NFL draft are getting.”

“That’s the thing that really kills,” Williams said.

But according to Smith, Williams has everything else.

“He uses his leverage exceptionally well, he has a quick first step and he uses his hands well,” he said.

Williams was a captain this year for the Panthers and had 42 tackles. Seventeen of them were for losses, which put him at second place in the Big East and 23rd nationally. In the games against N.C. State and Navy, he had a career-high eight tackles. He also had five sacks and forced three fumbles, one of which was returned 50 yards by a teammate for a touchdown.

The draft projections vary for Williams. According to NFLDraftScout.com, the earliest round he would be selected is the sixth round, but there is a possibility he would not be drafted. If that’s the case, he will likely become a priority free agent.

Priority free agent is the term used for undrafted players who will likely be picked up and signed by a team shortly after the draft.

But defensive tackles are often selected in the later rounds.

“[Steelers head coach] Mike Tomlin is one of our clients,” Smith said. “Tomlin said if an NFL team is going to take a shot on someone late in the draft, it will be a defensive lineman. They are a premium.”

“They can work with the team for a long time,” Smith said.

Smith compared Williams to one of his clients in the 2009 NFL Draft, Kentucky’s Myron Pryor. The New England Patriots selected Pryor in the sixth round as the 207th overall pick.

The Patriots also picked a defensive tackle in the second round. Boston College’s Ron Brace was the 40th overall pick in last year’s draft.

Brace played in nine games and registered eight tackles. Pryor played 13 games and notched 20 tackles.

But Pryor was avoided in the early round of the draft for the same reasons Williams might be.

“The knock on [Pryor’s] game was that he didn’t have the size,” Smith said.

He said Williams might not even be playing as a defensive tackle next year.

“His versatility could lead him to becoming an offensive fullback or a middle or outside linebacker,” he said.

Williams has already been working out with some NFL teams as a fullback, including the Green Bay Packers and the Atlanta Falcons.

So even if Williams goes undrafted, there are still options. There are even options if he doesn’t make the cut for any NFL teams.

“There’s a couple Canadian teams that want me,” Williams said. “But I’m not sure if I want to go that route.”

“It really don’t matter, I’m just happy to be in this situation,” he said.

But he hasn’t looked into doing anything other than football after leaving Pitt.

“I’ve been doing it since I was six. It’s a part of life now,” he said. “I enjoy playing the game. I just get out there and make plays.”

And that’s why he is so determined to play the game professionally. If football doesn’t work out, he’s not sure what he’ll do.

“I’m actually going to be three credits shy [of graduating] as of right now,” Williams, an administration of justice major, said.

“If it just don’t work out, I have to maybe go to the Canadian league,” he said. “Or look for a job.”