Tyleik Williams tends to sit next to D.J. Reader in the Lions' defensive line room, the rookie shadowing the vet. Ask Williams a question during film sessions and "it's amazing," said Reader, "he always knows the answer. Whether it's my position, his position, he's got a good feel for what's going on." Mastering an NFL playbook can be as challenging for some rooks as getting up to speed on the field. Not for Williams, who's starting to pop in the middle of Detroit's defense. Good: it will need him.
In a scrimmage-like session Monday, Williams had his best practice of camp. He was a persistent problem for the interior of the Lions' offensive line, which is still finding its footing. Williams powered through the trenches to twice sack Jared Goff, and made a couple run stuffs as well, at least one for a loss.
"He's thick, I'll tell you what," said starting center Graham Glasgow. "He's an interesting player. In a lot of ways he plays like a nose at the 3, which may not sound like a good thing but in other situations it's really good, just because you're not used to seeing it. He's a talented player. He's got a really good feel for playing the blocks that he sees, and I think that's something that's pretty rare for someone who's so young."
With star defensive tackle Alim McNeill out until midseason as he recovers from a torn ACL, and Levi Onwuzurike down for the year, the Lions are asking Williams to make an instant impact on a team with Super Bowl ambitions. He's built like Reader at 6'3, 330 pounds, but plays more like McNeill -- to the point that Dan Campbell is already calling him 'Baby Mac.' The 28th overall pick shrugs off the notion of pressure and says, "I got drafted where I got drafted for a reason."
"They obviously think I can play and help this team," he said. "I just gotta step up to the plate and do that."
During the first night of the draft, Brad Holmes and the Lions fielded a few calls about trading back. They considered one especially enticing offer that would have kept them in the first round, but couldn't bear the idea of missing out on Williams. The Bills, it turns out, wanted him at No 30. A few months after standing pat and getting his guy, Holmes said Wednesday, "He's been exactly what we expected." Campbell agrees.
"What we saw on his college tape is really showing up here," said Campbell, "and that's his ability to really get knock-back into the backfield and kind of recreate the line of scrimmage. He's got a good shock-and-shed, sometimes a little too good, he'll jump out of a gap if you're not careful, so we're trying to just stay on him with that. And then his rush, he can get an edge. He's trending the right way, he's growing. We just gotta get him in better shape, and that'll come with reps."
The smarts have never been in question for Williams. His coaches at Ohio State raved about that side of his game, as did the Lions after drafting him. It wasn't lip service. The discipline, as Campbell noted, is a work in progress, mostly because Williams is always hunting the ball. Reader, who lines up next to Williams in Detroit's starting base defense, said with a smile, "He always knows what to do -- I just gotta get on him about whether he does it right."
"But that's just the part about learning as a kid," Reader said. "But he don't whine, don't cry, don't bitch, feel sorry for himself. He tries to get better and that's all you can ask for, is someone putting their best foot forward every day. Yeah, he'll have a couple bad plays here and there, but he's not dwelling on it. He's got a next-page mentality and he's been doing good."
Williams, 22, calls Reader "Big Bro." Reader, 31, calls Williams "one of the more organized rookies that I've seen." Reader ribs him for being a "tablet guy" in meetings, though he also might be ribbing himself: Reader remains an old-school "notepad guy." He actually enjoys watching Williams operate his tablet, especially the way "he can just go right into his little search" bar to find "hit words" that he's noted in the past. Reader would have to flip through pages and pages of notes to achieve the same task.
It will be important that Williams improves his conditioning in the weeks ahead to handle a heavy load of snaps out of the gate. The Lions see him as a multi-dimensional player in their defense, equal parts pass-rusher and run-stuffer. He was sidelined for spring practices by a lingering leg injury and noted himself at the start of camp that the physical adjustment was a bigger hurdle than the mental one: "The game speed is a little faster than I thought it was going to be."
("It's harder than college," Williams said. Welcome to the NFL!)
Williams will continue to build stamina between now and Week 1, which is one reason Campbell was giving serious thought to playing him -- and second-rounder Tate Ratledge -- in Friday night's preseason game in Atlanta. The season-opener is less than a month away, with a lethal line of quarterbacks looming. The Lions' first six road games come against Jordan Love, Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow, Patrick Mahomes, Jayden Daniels and Jalen Hurts.
Already, said Holmes, Williams is showing his "power and athleticism and ability to bend." Throw in the fact that that "he's smart -- very smart -- and he's not being slowed down by the thinking."
"He's just out there playing, but so far, so good," said Holmes. "I don't know if it's a lot of pressure (on him). He's just doing what he does."
