When he was with the New York Jets, veteran linebacker Avery Williamson didn’t know much else but losing. After all, at the time that he was traded several weeks ago, he was sent from the only team during the 2020 season that had not yet won a game to the only team at that point who had not yet lost.
After experiencing his first game with the team, a game against the Dallas Cowboys that required their overcoming a double-digit deficit, a game-winning drive, and a defensive stop at the end, he expressed the fact that the losing mentality he had grown to adopt with the Jets kicked in, and he realized that all of his new Pittsburgh Steelers teammates were much more calm and collected on the sideline.
Several weeks on, however, it seems as though Williamson has gotten used to winning, as he said on his Tuesday radio appearance on The Fan that his reaction to the Steelers’ first loss of the year was shock. “Really wasn’t expecting us to lose. But we didn’t play our best football yesterday, and that’s what happens. The end result is that we lost”, he told his hosts.
Losing is, of course, familiar territory for him, as mentioned, though he had been on a couple of competent teams with the Tennessee Titans before finding what is essentially the bottom of the barrel that is playing for the Jets.
The Steelers are the third organization for which he has played professionally, and with each passing week it appears that he is growing more comfortable in their culture and their system. He still has four more games in the regular season and however many they might have in the postseason to make an impression.
Of course, given the team’s salary cap situation, and the fact that they already have two starting linebackers in Devin Bush and Vince Williams, don’t make it incredibly likely that they would actually re-sign him after this year. they also have Robert Spillane and Ulysees Gilbertt III, even if they literally have none of those guys available right now, for a variety of reasons.
Williamson has gone from being shocked to win to now being shocked to lose. I would be inclined to call that a successful transition. It’s important to expect to win whenever you’re on the field. It’s not going to win games all by itself, but when you have confidence in your ability to pull through, it makes a difference.
