Williams is a converted high school quarterback who excels with the ball in his hand
The Green Bay Packers have gone offense with all three of their top-100 picks in the draft so far. The Packers turned in their third-round selection for TCU wide receiver Savion Williams, a high school quarterback who was used in various ways with the Horned Frogs.
At 6’4” and 222 pounds, Williams is built like a running back. The team used him frequently as a wildcat quarterback, where he received 46 snaps in his final year at TCU.
We wrote a full scouting report on Williams following the combine, where he ran a 4.48-second 40-yard dash. Here’s an excerpt:
And yet still, he had at least three brutal drops against the Stanford Cardinal in Week 1. The evaluation of Williams is actually really simple. He’s a rare athlete who is big and runs like he’s punishing the ground. How you value that in a receiver who has shaky at best hands is up to the evaluator, though.
A name he’s likely to be compared to a lot from now until the draft is Cordarrelle Patterson, a former first-round pick who never really caught on as a receiver but was named a seven-time All-Pro, made the NFL’s all-decade team for the 2010s and set the NFL record for the most kickoff returns scored for a touchdown. At 6’4”, 222 pounds with a 4.48-second 40-yard dash, Williams’ raw measurables aren’t too far from Patterson’s (6’2”, 216 pounds with a 4.42-second 40-yard dash.) The fact that he might take it to the crib if he gets open on the first step out of his release will probably convince at least one NFL team that he’s worth developing as a true outside receiver instead of just being a returner and gadget player.
Williams is expected to contribute as a kick returner, hopefully developing into a role where he can potentially replace Christian Watson on the offensive side of the ball.