Better be ready to tackle in Cleveland.
“I wasn’t joking. He is going to have to tackle some,” Kitchens said when asked about the phone conversation that was captured by the team’s multimedia department last Friday night. “When the ball gets out on the edge, we are not going to let him go. I don’t have a problem. Greedy is going to tackle. He wants to tackle. He is a willing tackler. That maybe have not all been on tape as an example, but peer pressure gets through them sometimes. It gets through our players, and if we have the leaders that I think we have, then he will tackle.”
It was speculated that Williams’ cut tackling style, where he took ball carriers down by going for their legs, at LSU might have cost him some slots in the draft.
On Friday, Williams defended himself against the criticism.
“At LSU, my assignment was to play man-to-man and that’s what I did. I really couldn’t show off my tackling ability,” Williams said. “I saw the press conference where John Dorsey said we just need this guy to get somebody down and that’s me. I’m more than just getting somebody down. I’m like tackling, hitting, whatever they need me to do, and I’m here to do it and like I said, John Dorsey said it best, you know, ‘you’ve got to cover some people in this league’ and that’s one of the main reasons they brought me to this team.”
Williams’ size and the fluidity that Dorsey spoke about were visible during his first rookie minicamp practice even though he didn’t make a play that stood out during the nearly 100-minute long session.
“He is smooth,” Kitchens said. “He transitions well from a back paddle and can close on the ball. He is long, of course, and then he competes.”
“I think it was pretty cool as far as how it kind of showcased what my wife and I had to go through together to get to where we're at right now,” Forbes said. “It was a team effort. Coming from limited resources in colleges that I had. She really helped maximized where we can go and do in that small town that we lived in.”
Forbes, a Southeast Missouri State product, made a name for himself on film as an aggressive finisher.
“As soon as that whistles blows, I try to lay off,” Forbes said. “We were coached as a team early to just play with that mentality, and I tried to really embody that at Southeast Missouri State. I think they liked that here, too – I know they do. The group of guys they just bought in, I think have some of those same qualities.”
Forbes doesn’t seem all that concerned with jumping from the FCS to the NFL.
“I think for everybody in college it is going to be a much higher tempo, whether it is from FCS or FBS schools,” Forbes said. “It may be a bigger adjustment for some, but I look forward to the challenge.”
Dean intercepted two passes and got his hands on three other footballs during key drills earning multiple congratulations from fellow Hurricane Sheldrick Redwine during practice.
After practice Kitchens also complimented the undrafted rookie.
“It is better to make a play than to not make a play,” Kitchens said. “That is really the only thing that I can say about it right now. He showed up. It was good to see. He made a couple plays on the ball that he didn’t end up with the ball, but he still made the play on the ball. He was a factor. Anytime you are a factor, you kind of stand out. That is a good thing during this time of the year.”
Fisth-round picks Mack Wilson, selected 155th overall, and Austin Seibert, picked 15 spots later, are under contract leaving second rounder Williams and third-round linebacker Sione Takitaki as the lone unsigned draftees.
Sheldrick Redwine, Drew Forbes and Donnie Lewis signed on Thursday.
A foot injury suffered in January likely caused Lewis to fall in the draft.
“I feel like it affected it a lot,” Lewis said. “I was rolling high. I saw a lot of projections had me like second day for sure. Just going from that and having no Combine and no Pro Day, it was a blessing to get that call.”