FOXBOROUGH -- When the Patriots drafted Joejuan Williams in the second round this past April, it seemed likely the team would move the 6-foot-4 cornerback around in the defense given his size and physicality.
That is what happened in the preseason finale Thursday night against the Giants when the rookie played every defensive snap at safety, sometimes playing in the box similar to what Patrick Chung does.
"It was literally just a couple days ago," Williams said of the position change. "Coach told me in practice he wanted me to play at safety, so I took it and smiled and ran with it. I was pretty excited about the challenge, and I was pretty excited about the opportunity."
With so many talented players in the secondary playing time might be hard to come by, but the more you can do the better chance you have of getting on the field."It just shows how valuable you are to the team," Williams said. "And that's one thing that I wanted to show to the team: how valuable I am. I want to show this team that wherever they need me to play, I feel like I can fill that role for them, and I'll do my best to take on that challenge. It's exciting, really. It's really exciting. And once they told me I was playing safety, I tried my best to take that to full advantage and take on that challenge. It's just showing the team how valuable I am, basically."
Even though he was at a new spot, he still believes the night helped his overall growth.
"I feel like you see a lot more — especially at safety, you see the whole defense," Williams said. "At corner, you're kind of focusing on one man. We play a lot of man (coverage) in this defense, so you're focusing on one person. But at safety, you see a lot more. You're more like the quarterback of the defense. And I feel like taking on that challenge this week, it definitely helped me out playing corner, also. (Now) I'll know where my safety help is — I know where my safety's going — because I played the position. So I just feel like it only helps me a lot more."
The Patriots will cut their roster down to 53 players by Saturday at 4 p.m. and Williams is a lock to make the team considering he was selected in the second round.
