James Williams may well stay at S, but...

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...this is who he reminds me of...

Jevon Kearse

"He played strong safety and tight end, and in his first season in high school, he returned four kicks for touchdowns."

"Starting college at 6 feet, 4 inches tall, and 215 pounds, Kearse was projected as either a linebacker or defensive back. He accepted an athletic scholarship to attend the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, where he played for coach Steve Spurrier's Florida Gators football team from 1995 to 1998.[4] He began his college career at safety before shifting to outside linebacker in 1996.[5] Later in his college career, he would occasionally line up at defensive end during obvious passing situations to intensify the Gators' pass rush."

Nice comp but y'all comparing him to Kearse and Simmons. The only comparison is size and position. Everything else is not a good comparison. Those dudes were elite/freak athletes - JW is not. He strikes me as a 4.6+ kid who has the frame to easily put on 10-20 lbs and play LB at the pro level. College will be spent mostly at that S/LB hybrid position.
 
Rousseau played Safety & WR. I'm just saying it's possible.

Rousseau played DE/OLB his senior year and was always a prospect clearly suited for one of those 2 positions. Rousseau was so impressive because he showed functional athleticism to make plays as a HS safety at 6'6 200+ but he was not the caliber of safety that Williams is.

Totally different scenario
 
Any thoughts on maybe moving Tae to CB?

Having Tae, Kinch, JW on the field all at once. Love that we have Harrell on the team as well...he is being overlooked as well.
 
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I have extreme doubts that anybody who's a legit 6'5" can play Safety at an elite level. (full time)
There's a reason we don't see it. Guys that big generally don't have the hips to play Safety.

The last time he had to come downhill from the Safety spot and tackle a D1 running back, it looked REALLY bad.

We may be looking at a 6'5" 245lb Linebacker/hybrid who runs a 4.6 forty and can be moved around.
 
I have extreme doubts that anybody who's a legit 6'5" can play Safety at an elite level. (full time)
There's a reason we don't see it. Guys that big generally don't have the hips to play Safety.

The last time he had to come downhill from the Safety spot and tackle a D1 running back, it looked REALLY bad.

We may be looking at a 6'5" 245lb Linebacker/hybrid who runs a 4.6 forty and can be moved around.
Dion Jordan in coverage more.
 
Needs more fluidity in his hips. I’ve also said he can our Simmons. He’s a freak athlete, but think he becomes a multi millionaire as a LB
I agree...
I have extreme doubts that anybody who's a legit 6'5" can play Safety at an elite level. (full time)
There's a reason we don't see it. Guys that big generally don't have the hips to play Safety.

The last time he had to come downhill from the Safety spot and tackle a D1 running back, it looked REALLY bad.

We may be looking at a 6'5" 245lb Linebacker/hybrid who runs a 4.6 forty and can be moved around.
That's EXACTLY what I said yesterday...If he gains 20lbs...he'll be another Jevon Kearse type of talent...
 
I think some of us are underrating James Williams overall athletic ability. If Jayron Kearse can play safety at 6’4”, James Williams can as well with more talent and upside. I’m sure we can agree JW is atleast as talented if not more at this same stage.

I also think we are trying to force him into a position that’s not his skillset. I don’t know any safeties that have moved to linebacker successfully that didn’t already have a knack for hitting.
 
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I am most excited to see where he is on 3rd down. Diaz used Amari Carter in a ton of sub packages early on and James should be no different.
 
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While the odds may seem to indicate a position change in the future, you always give talent a chance rather than penning someone into a position before you get a chance to see what they can do with their talent. That type of stuff happens all the time in life, someone doesn't see what one can really do that may be outside the norm as they weren't given the chance. Let the man figure it out, he may just surprise some of you.
 
I think some of us are underrating James Williams overall athletic ability. If Jayron Kearse can play safety at 6’4”, James Williams can as well with more talent and upside. I’m sure we can agree JW is atleast as talented if not more at this same stage.

I also think we are trying to force him into a position that’s not his skillset. I don’t know any safeties that have moved to linebacker successfully that didn’t already have a knack for hitting.
He's not going to strictly play one position that's the point.

There's not a single 6'5 230lbs Safety in the NFL & there's very few 6'4 Safeties in either college or the NFL, all the DB's that size share one thing in common, lots of snaps at multiple positions.

Whether it's Jayron Kearse, Justin Simmons, Hamsah Nasirildeen, you could even throw Derwin James in there, every single one of them had hundreds of snaps in college at multiple positions. Derwin is probably the truest Safety out of the bunch & even he had over 200 snaps lined up at LB & CB, the same for Simmons & Hamsah, literally hundreds of snaps at 3 different positions.

I can pretty much guarantee that JW will not play 3-4 years at Miami only at FS. He's a Hybrid whether he's knows it right now or not lol.
 
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He's not going to strictly play one position that's the point.

There's not a single 6'5 230lbs Safety in the NFL & there's very few 6'4 Safeties in either college or the NFL, all the DB's that size share one thing in common, lots of snaps at multiple positions.

Whether it's Jayron Kearse, Justin Simmons, Hamsah Nasirildeen, you could even throw Derwin James in there, every single one of them had hundreds of snaps in college at multiple positions. Derwin is probably the truest Safety out of the bunch & even he had over 200 snaps lined up at LB & CB, the same for Simmons & Hamsah, literally hundreds of snaps at 3 different positions.

I can pretty much guarantee that JW will not play 3-4 years at Miami only at FS. He's a Hybrid whether he's knows it right now or not lol.

George Iloka, too. Another one who is in the 6'4" safety club, and was used in a lot of different ways at Boise State and then in the NFL. JW is going to be moved all over to create mismatches and exploit weak points on opposing offenses. Baker should be salivating at the multiple ways he will deploy JW.
 
George Iloka, too. Another one who is in the 6'4" safety club, and was used in a lot of different ways at Boise State and then in the NFL. JW is going to be moved all over to create mismatches and exploit weak points on opposing offenses. Baker should be salivating at the multiple ways he will deploy JW.
He’s going to be a great weapon. Especially if he can add some physicality to his game. He reminds me of Pat Watkins from FSU (**** near chose Miami). Pat played before these hybrid type players became more valuable because of all the spread offenses. He was still a 6-4 safety who made it to the league.
 
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