A little under three months after requesting a trade, Cincinnati Bengals offensive tackle Jonah Williams is backing off of his request and is instead focusing on his switch to right tackle after spending the first three seasons at left tackle.
According to Cincinnati Bengals senior writer Geoff Hobson on the team’s official website, Williams has backed off of his trade request and is “stoked” to move to right tackle after the team signed Orlando Brown Jr. to a massive contract in free agency to shore up the left tackle position in front of quarterback Joe Burrow.
Williams, who has started 47 games at left tackle for the Cincinnati Bengals since being a 2019 first-round draft pick, requested a trade shortly after the Bengals shocked the NFL landscape with the signing of Brown.
“I’ll be happy to be a contributor on a team where I have so many great teammates,” Williams told Hobson for Bengals.com. “l love everyone in the room, love the coaches, love the fans. I’m stoked.”
The comments to Hobson are a major change in the tone and tune Williams was singing after the signing of Brown, wanting out of the Queen City to have a chance to remain at left tackle. However, Cincinnati’s front office rejected the request overall, insisting from the start that they planned to move Williams from left to right tackle to solidify a position in question, with veteran right tackle La’el Collins unlikely to be ready for the start of the season due to injury.
Now, the former first-round pick is making the move to right tackle, and by all accounts is embracing the move, though it will require a significant adjustment for the offensive linemen. Williams has played left tackle since his days at Alabama under head coach Nick Saban, though he did spend some time at right tackle as a freshman with the Crimson Tide.
“(The biggest adjustment) is re-learning everything for the other side of your body. Opposite stance. Post leg is your kick leg and vice versa and all that. It’s nothing that reps and practice won’t get me used to,” Williams said to Hobson. “The last time I played right tackle was freshman year in college. There’s a lot of technique to kind of unlearn and switch to the other side. It’s my job. I love it.
“I’ve got a great coach, great teammates, and I’m grinding my ass off. I’m going to crush it.”
After missing his rookie season due to injury, Williams settled into left tackle for the Bengals rather nicely. That made the decision to sign Brown Jr. to a big contract a rather curious one by Cincinnati. It came just one year after the Bengals signed Collins to a lucrative contract in free agency.
Williams played more than 1,100 snaps in back-to-back seasons and graded out at a 77.1 in 2021, according to Pro Football Focus, and a 63.9 in 2022. Over the last two seasons, Williams has been charged with 20 sacks allowed, including a career-worst 12 in 2022.
Williams has allowed 23 career sacks and 105 total pressures.
He will have to hold off the likes of Jackson Carman, Cody Ford and Hakeem Adeniji to win the right tackle job for the Bengals, though he is very clearly the front runner with Collins still rehabbing a torn ACL.
