Rams CB Darious Williams earning reputation as ball hawk
INGELWOOD, Calif. -- Darious Williams says he was blessed with the ability to catch the football, but it’s an evolving process, something he works on each day.
“I’m always working on them, but I feel like I’ve always had them,” Williams said, smiling.
The Los Angeles Rams cornerback went to say with takeaways so important in the NFL, Williams stays after practice to get extra work in on the Jugs machine to become a natural hands catcher.
And so far, that extra work has paid off for the 27-year-old Williams.
“I think that’s just God blessing me,” Williams said. “At the end of the day, I try to be basically like a red dot, someone that’s dangerous on the field.
“I want every quarterback -- I want everybody that ever targets me to know that it’s a 50-50 chance to get the pick. So I just think really it’s just the positions I’m in and capitalizing on them.”
Through four games, Williams has been a “red dot” for opposing quarterbacks and is slowly earning some stature in the league as a guy who can make plays.
Through four games, Williams has two interceptions, three pass breakups and 10 combined tackles.
Williams’ takeaways have come in critical situations of the game for the Rams.
In a win over the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 2 and his team holding onto a tenuous, 21-16 lead, Williams drove on a Carson Wentz pass intended for J Arcega-Whiteside, intercepting it in the end zone.
The pick by Williams provided a momentum-changing play that led to the Rams taking control of the game in the second half.
And against the Giants over the weekend with New York driving to tie the game, Williams stepped in front of a Daniel Jones’ offering to receiver Damion Ratley on an out route, making a spectacular, diving catch to seal a 17-9 victory for his team at L.A’s 7-yard line.
“He’s just a clutch player,” Rams head coach Sean McVay said. “He’s been doing that ever since he got an opportunity to play really last year. He’s a guy that if he gets his hands on the ball, he’s usually going to catch it and be able to get it back to the offense and right there, that was a game clenching play and a situation that we had to have.
“He was bumped, they ran kind of a stem in, breakout and for him to be able to make that play was unbelievable. It was a great catch and another great pick for him in a crucial situation, even more important than the Philly game a couple of weeks ago.”
Williams also was on the receiving end of a questionable, defensive pass interference call in Week 3 against the Buffalo Bills that set them up for the winning score late in the game.
“To see Darious make that play at the end after what happened last week, how disappointed he was, to see him make that play was awesome,” Rams quarterback Jared Goff said. “He deserves that. He’s a great player and that was a hell of a play by him.”
At 5-9 and 187 pounds, Williams is not a big corner. But he has good speed (4.44-second, 40-yard time at his pro day) and movement skills.
In college, Williams showed an ability to take the ball away. During his two seasons at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, Williams totaled six interceptions and 26 pass breakups, earning all-Conference USA honors his senior season in 2017.
Williams signed as an undrafted rookie with the Baltimore Ravens in 2018 but was waived midway through the year and claimed by the Rams.
Last season, Williams saw action in 14 games for L.A., including two starts at cornerback, finishing with 15 tackles, four pass break ups, two interceptions and a fumble recovery for a touchdown.
Williams said one of the benefits of playing opposite of one of the best cornerbacks in the game in Jalen Ramsey is he knows each week that quarterbacks will target him.
“That’s great,” Williams said. “With Jalen, that’s a dog on the other side. I know teams are scared of him, so that just opens it up (for me). That’s probably a lot of the reasons why I get targets thrown at me, PBU’s (pass break-ups) – whatever it is. It’s all credit to Jalen because he’s just so good on the other side.”
