On Monday, the Pittsburgh Steelers announced the signing of OT Jarrid Williams to their 90-man roster. With the need to run three units in training camp, signing another tackle to the offseason roster made sense for Pittsburgh, which already had Chuks Okorafor, Dan Moore Jr., Broderick Jones, Le’Raven Clark, and Dylan Cook on the current roster.
They keep a similar trend with the addition of Williams, bringing in a blocker with excellent size and length. Williams checks in at 6-foot-6, 308 pounds with 10 1/2″ hands and a massive length of 35 7/8″ arms. How do these measurables translate to the tape? Let’s dive in.
The Film
When watching Jarrid Williams in the preseason last year against the Browns and Jets, you see his length come into play as a pass protector. When he times his punch right, Williams can land first contact on defenders nearly every time thanks to his reach, being able to get a hand on them and extend to stall the pass rush. Here are a couple of examples of Williams using his superior length and wingspan to keep pass rushers at bay, not allowing them into his frame as he keeps the pocket clean.
Williams is a capable hand fighter who can hit and replace after his initial punch. You see instances of him using independent hands, which is a technique that Steelers OL Coach Pat Meyer teaches his guys as they bring the fight to the opposition. Here is one example against the Browns and DL Curtis Weaver. Williams starts his pass set with both hands up, but then mirrors Weaver as he tries to get the corner, extending his left arm to keep the pass rusher from getting the edge.
However, outside of a couple nice reps in pass protection, it’s easy to see that Williams is still a work in progress when it comes to the fundamentals of playing offensive tackle. He has the ideal size, height, and length you want, but he tends to struggle with consistency and putting it all together. Here is one example against the Jets where you can see Williams struggle with power when going up against DE Jabari Zuniga. Williams lacks the base and anchor to sit in against the bull rush and gets ran over by Zuniga on his way to the QB.
Williams also needs to do a better job of syncing his hands and feet as he will whiff on his punch when he is worried about getting beat around the edge. Watch this rep against Weaver. Williams shoots his hands after Weaver works off the clip by the slot receiver, but Williams completely whiffs on the block as Weaver works inside him for the easy sack.
Williams will also get caught playing with his shoulder pads over his toes often, attempting to lunge forward and gets hands on the defender immediately rather than a strong punch. This block attempt against Weaver does nothing. Williams’ hands fall off almost immediately as Weaver rounds the corner and nearly brings down the QB for the sack on back-to-back plays.
When it comes to run blocking, Williams leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to playing with physicality. He is often beat across his face as you can see in the clip below. Lacking the awareness to pick up defenders crashing inside as his feet stall, he looks like a turnstile with the defender getting an unimpeded path to the football.
You also see a lack of aggressiveness from Williams despite his size and length, often showing little resistance to allow defenders to get to the football. Check out these clips below against New York and Williams looking like this in pass protection rather than run blocking, getting a soft initial punch on the defender before the defender gets off the block to pursue the runner.
Conclusion
Jarrid Williams is a tantalizing player when you look at him coming off the bus, having all the measurables that you could want in a developmental offensive tackle. However, his lack of experience and rawness in several key areas of his game put him in a tough position to compete for a practice squad spot, let alone one on the 53-man roster. His lack of foot quickness along with his inconsistent punch and lack of play strength/anchor make him a revolving door more often than not, giving him difficulties being a consistent pass protector and run blocker.
Williams will have a chance to show in training camp that he has improved these issues in team practices as well as in preseason action. Still, the mental side of things sticks out as he needs to play with more aggressiveness as a run blocker if he wishes to stick with Pittsburgh throughout the preseason as more than just a camp body.
