FOXBORO, Mass.- Joining a new team halfway through education camp is easy.This is particularly complicated with a non-existent pre-season.
Ask Xavier Williams.
A member of Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs last season, Williams signed with the New England Patriots on August 22 after languishing in a loose venture for more than months.
Two weeks after the September 5 deadline, the veteran defensive version learns the Patriots’ formula on the fly as it seeks to prove it deserves a place on the five to three-player list.
“It’s another experience,” Williams said after Monday’s practice.”You feel a little ball 8.Football is football.Either you play or you can’t. The difficult parts are to perceive and learn plays, to learn the settings, to be there and to be able to perceive everything in real time, when they make calls and make genuine time adjustments.
I don’t think it’s paper, however, when you get in and you’re on the ground, bullets fly, do empty checks to jump back and locate when a back jumps or adjusts the front – things like that.Trying to slow down for you is a little difficult.”
Williams has a merit in that regard. In Kansas City last season, he played with defensive line coach Brendan Daly, who in the past held the same position in New England.The Chiefs’ 4-3 defense was schematically different from the Patriots’ defense, but thanks to Daly’s influence.much of the verbose was the same.
“There are a lot of crosses, especially with terminology,” Williams said.”The terminology (Daly) was introduced, even though they played as another defensive when I was in Kansas City, the terminology we use overlaps a lot.helping when you enter into a new defense and perceive what they mean through their words.
“Each defense can be the same type of game, the same type of movement, but if you have 3 other defensive coordinators, they will probably use another 3 terms.So it actually made it less difficult to perceive some of the terms when I got here (less difficult).And the strategy that (Daly) taught us in Kansas City, has a big effect on what we do here as well, which is also a wonderful help.
Williams entered the NFL as an undrafted loose agent in Northern Iowa in 2015 and is now in his sixth season, having spent the first 3 in Arizona and the last two in K.C.
The 2018 season, a year in Williams’ career (47 tackles, 2 1/2 catches in 16 games, adding up to 4 starts), however, injuries limited him to five appearances in 2019.Se he wore but did not play in the Super LIV Bowl.
A persistent injury to veteran take on D Beau Allen has created further opportunities for players like Williams, Byron Cowart, Bill Murray and Nick Thurman this summer.But with Lawrence Guy, Adam Butler Deatrich Wise and Cowart all betting to make the list, it may just take a release from Allen for Williams to stay.
“I was lucky, ” said Williams. (I’m in) sixth grade, I’ve noticed some defenses.I have a little wisdom to dig and put things together, so it helped me a lot.But yes, it’s a bit like the back, opposite the wall.You’re here fighting for a place, and it seems everyone knows everything you’re looking to understand.”