Seahawks 2021 Draft Profile: Trill Williams

The Seahawks will need to add more competition to their outside cornerback position. Could they look to Trill Williams to add much needed competition?

The Seahawks have been active during the free agency period thus far and considering they only have three 2021 draft selections, they needed to be. But despite adding impactful players as well as rotational and depth pieces, one area that the Seahawks still need to address is the outside cornerback position.

Seattle lost Shaquill Griffin toJacksonville, but quickly nabbed Akhello Witherspoon, a long-armed, athletic outside corner to play opposite of D.J. Reed, who broke out in the second half of the 2020 season. The team still has Tre Flowers competing for a starting spot, but his inconsistent play has left the Seahawks vulnerable. The most obvious potential addition, Quinton Dunbar, signed with the Lions, leaving few options in free agency that represent good fits at this point.

This leaves the draft as the most likely avenue from which the Seahawks can add talent to the position group and there are a few corners who check most of the boxes the team typically covets. One such player is a 6-foot-2 corner from Syracuse in Trill Williams.

Strengths

Williams is a big, physical corner who boasts 4.4 40-yard dash speed. He gets up on the line of scrimmage and manhandles receivers at the snap. He's strong, posting 20 reps of 225 pounds at his pro day. Despite his large size, Williams has experience playing in the slot, showing good lateral quickness, and his 1.56-second 10-yard split shows he can legitimately play against smaller slot receivers in the NFL.

Williams is comfortable in both man and zone coverage and has big-play ability, returning three touchdowns in his career at Syracuse, including a 90-yard TD return in 2020. Williams is an athletic warrior who has the production and scheme versatility to make him desirable to a lot of teams and even has past experience at safety.

Weaknesses

Despite his impressive frame, Williams' arms are on the shorter side (31 1/8), where the Seahawks are traditionally drawn to those with 32 inch or longer arms. However, Seattle did use Reed as an outside corner and his success may pave the way to a new era of Seahawks scouting at the position.

Williams can be sloppy on the back-end of coverage and fails to turn his head at the right time. He also missed the second half of the 2020 season due to injury and his "explosive" testing results were more above-average than great, which could lower his stock a bit heading into the draft.

Fit in Seattle

The Seahawks will like Williams's height, strength, and versatility. He would have a legitimate shot at unseating Flowers and Witherspoon on the outside, but could also give legitimate competition for Ugo Amadi and Marquise Blair at the nickel spot as well. The fact that Williams can add competition to multiple spots of the defense is going to give him a major boost, as the lack of draft picks for Seattle could lead to versatility being a major factor on draft day decisions. 

Williams could be the second sign of the Seahawks breaking away from their long-armed outside corner mold and turn into a viable replacement for Flowers, Reed, or Witherspoon, all of whom have just one year left under contract. He could wind up being the long-term answer on the outside the team desperately needs.