New York Giants 2023 UFA Primer: IDL Nicholas Williams

Nick Williams provided interior defensive line depth until suffering a season-ending biceps injury. Did he do enough before then to warrant a second contract?

Nicholas Williams, Interior Defensive Lineman

Height: 6-foot-4
Weight: 310 lbs.
Age: 32
NFL Exp: 8 Years
College: Samford

The beef of their defensive front may be preserved behind this upcoming year, but the New York Giants have some negotiations to be had within the reserves of their interior. One name on the backburner is interior defensive lineman Nicholas Williams.

A seventh-round selection in 2013 out of Samford, Williams signed with the Giants on July 26, 2022, on a one-year deal amid a slew for the franchise. Prior to New York, the 32-year-old was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers and then spent a combined four seasons with the Chiefs, Dolphins, Bears, and Lions.

On the college level, where he played one season with the Bulldogs before declaring for the pros, Williams’ numbers weren’t world-beating. However, he was a beast behind the line of scrimmage, posting eight tackles for losses of 56 yards and six sacks for 54 yards in his 11 games played. He tallied 31 total tackles, had three passes deflected, and blocked one kick as well.

Much of his NFL experience hasn’t been that fruitful either, given he has spent some time on practice squads and injured reserve lists. Those issues plagued his time in Pittsburgh, and the next three years would see him appear in just 26 games and record 18 tackles. 

Williams’ turnaround came in 2019 with Chicago, however, when he played in 16 games and recorded a career-high 42 tackles, six sacks, two fumble recoveries, and two passes deflected.

The eight-year defensive lineman bested the tackles number in the next two seasons with Detroit, holding 31 games played with 50 tackles and 1.5 sacks. He’s tried to recapture the success in East Rutherford but has again had to deal with injury bouts.

2022 Recap

Williams’s resume with the Giants notched its first statistic early in the season, but then there were plays made few and far between for the defensive lineman.

After not appearing in the team’s season opener against Tennessee, Williams earned his first reps in blue during the Giants’ 19-16 win over the Carolina Panthers in Week 2 when he made two tackles to assist on the day’s outcome. One week later, against Dallas, he added another 3 tackles, including two assisted takedowns, in New York’s 23-16 primetime defeat.

The remainder of Williams’s games came in the first half of the Giants’ schedule, where he tallied 10 more tackles, and two deflected passes in Weeks 4-8. His best performance came against Chicago in Week 4 when the Samford product managed five tackles, two stuffs, and a tipped ball to help Big Blue win 20-12 and continue their hot winning streak.

On November 7, shortly after the Giants’ game in Seattle, Williams was diagnosed with a biceps injury and landed on the injured reserve list for the remainder of the season. His 15 total tackles were the fewest amount he’s collected in the last four campaigns.

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GIANTS UFA PRIMERS: QB Daniel Jones | IOL Nick Gates | RB Saquon Barkley | C Jon Feliciano | IDL Justin Ellis | RB Matt Breida | LS Casey Kreiter | OLB Jihad Ward | Sterling Shepard

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Why the Giants Should Keep Him

Despite not having a lot of reps – 227 total snaps in 2022 – with the Giants, Williams boasts one strong element on the field, and that is his tackling ability. Throughout his eight-year career, he has only carried a missed tackle rate greater than 10% once in 2015 with Kansas City. He was one of the better tacklers for New York this season, carrying a 5.0% missed tackle rate that stood as his best number in the past four seasons.

Williams is also one of the best interior defenders at not collecting the yellow laundry on Sundays. Per Pro Football Focus, the veteran has just four infractions to his NFL tenure and has not been penalized since his sole mishap in the 2020 season with Detroit. 

All of this comes with Williams being a good plug-and-play defender who can line up all across the front lines and make a stuff at the line of scrimmage. His heaviest dosage has come from the B-gap, but he has strong experience lining up in the A-gap or over the offensive tackle as well.

Why the Giants Shouldn’t Keep Him

The Giants have come to pride themselves on the excellent pressure they bring behind their stellar defensive line, and looking at Williams’s production and rushing grades in the backfield, it doesn’t feel like he would be a solid fit for Wink Martindale’s system.

In the past eight seasons, Williams has failed to achieve a grade of at least 70.0 in run defense, pass-rushing, or coverage defense. His numbers have floated between the lower 40s and upper 60s, and this past year finished at 59.9 defensively, 63.2 in rush, and 52.7 in pass rushing, per PFF. The only area that was solid was tackling, where Williams posted a career-best 76.8 grade.

With these mediocre lines, Williams hasn’t been as much of a menace behind the line of scrimmage as he was at the collegiate level. He holds eight career sacks, seven hits, 51 hurries, and seven batted passes, with the third stat posting double-digits in three of his professional campaigns. Those numbers won’t do much to push the envelope next season when the Giants look to have a fortified unit that disrupts the pocket at a voluminous rate.

Keep or Dump?

Williams is a good finisher at the point of contact—something the Giants have needed in their defense, which has been bad at wrapping up in recent years—but he’s not a player who has proven to make a huge difference in pressuring the interior where Martindale’s defense makes its payday.

That said, the team already has another decision to make at defensive tackle with Justin Ellis, and the market for another solid player may be out of the Giants’ financial comfort zone. There are a few names that could be attained for lesser than market value, such as Johnathan Hankins and Teair Tart, but those players could soon be pulled back off by their respective organizations.

The Giants also have three impactful rushers on the defense in Leonard Williams, Dexter Lawrence, and Kayvon Thibodeaux, all of whom have or will command larger contracts in the future. It’s hard to see them devoting significant money to the position this offseason, especially when it’s not one that is one piece away from making them a real contender in the NFC.

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