looks like Williams making a strong case to make the roster. I am still shocked at how little respect our DL got. Grady dropped further than I thought and Williams went undrafted.
CINCINNATI -- Nine players are currently competing for a spot in the Cincinnati Bengals' defensive line rotation.
That means as many as four could be on the outside of the 53-man roster looking in once training camp concludes.
Conventional logic says undrafted rookies should be among that four-man group to get cut. But Clemson product DeShawn Williams isn't looking like the conventional, down-on-the-roster three-technique so far. To this point in camp, the young defensive tackle has been impressive; so much so that his defensive coordinator compared him Saturday to a revered Bengals Pro Bowler at the same position.
"He walked out to practice on the first day here and he walked out like this," Paul Guenther said, opening his feet at a wide angle and sort of waddling.
Guenther was mimicking Geno Atkins, the Bengals interior lineman who was taken in the fourth round of the 2010 draft. A shorter, funny-walking lineman, Atkins was mostly overlooked during the draft process by teams who wanted taller players who looked like better athletes.
It turns out that the way Atkins walked had no bearing on his ability to make plays. Through his first four seasons, he had 29 sacks. That includes an injury-shortened 2013 season that was cut short due to a ACL tear on Halloween night.
If Williams can replicate pre-injury Atkins in even the slightest, he could find a home in Cincinnati by the end of the month. Even if the 53-man depth chart is too stacked for him, Williams appears at this early stage to be a shoe-in for the Bengals' practice squad.
"He's built like Geno," Guenther said. "He's got the great quickness. He's a bit of a shorter, stronger guy, but he's got good explosion coming off the line.
"He's the classic example -- all these guys are doing it exactly the way I want it. They're studying, they're listening. It's like I told them this morning, 'If we just continue to play like that, we'll be hard to beat.'"
Williams showed some of the explosion Guenther referenced in an exercise during Saturday's "mock game."
Pitted against quarterback Andy Dalton and Cincinnati's first-team offense, Williams helped his second-team defensive teammates get a stop when he knocked down a Dalton pass at the line. As he tried to push through the line's interior on the key third down, he put a hand up, batting the throw away.
CINCINNATI -- Nine players are currently competing for a spot in the Cincinnati Bengals' defensive line rotation.
That means as many as four could be on the outside of the 53-man roster looking in once training camp concludes.
Conventional logic says undrafted rookies should be among that four-man group to get cut. But Clemson product DeShawn Williams isn't looking like the conventional, down-on-the-roster three-technique so far. To this point in camp, the young defensive tackle has been impressive; so much so that his defensive coordinator compared him Saturday to a revered Bengals Pro Bowler at the same position.
"He walked out to practice on the first day here and he walked out like this," Paul Guenther said, opening his feet at a wide angle and sort of waddling.
Guenther was mimicking Geno Atkins, the Bengals interior lineman who was taken in the fourth round of the 2010 draft. A shorter, funny-walking lineman, Atkins was mostly overlooked during the draft process by teams who wanted taller players who looked like better athletes.
It turns out that the way Atkins walked had no bearing on his ability to make plays. Through his first four seasons, he had 29 sacks. That includes an injury-shortened 2013 season that was cut short due to a ACL tear on Halloween night.
If Williams can replicate pre-injury Atkins in even the slightest, he could find a home in Cincinnati by the end of the month. Even if the 53-man depth chart is too stacked for him, Williams appears at this early stage to be a shoe-in for the Bengals' practice squad.
"He's built like Geno," Guenther said. "He's got the great quickness. He's a bit of a shorter, stronger guy, but he's got good explosion coming off the line.
"He's the classic example -- all these guys are doing it exactly the way I want it. They're studying, they're listening. It's like I told them this morning, 'If we just continue to play like that, we'll be hard to beat.'"
Williams showed some of the explosion Guenther referenced in an exercise during Saturday's "mock game."
Pitted against quarterback Andy Dalton and Cincinnati's first-team offense, Williams helped his second-team defensive teammates get a stop when he knocked down a Dalton pass at the line. As he tried to push through the line's interior on the key third down, he put a hand up, batting the throw away.
