GREEN BAY – After the season he had, it would be tempting to lean into a little more. Might even be expected. Evan Williams defied his fourth-round draft odds, wrecked drives at the line of scrimmage, and became the Green Bay Packers newest star.
He’s aligned to ascend into one of the NFL’s best box safeties in 2026. So you might be surprised that’s where he winces. Box safety.
Don’t use that term around him.
“I don’t want to be labeled,” Williams said, “as, ‘OK, you’re just a box safety.’”
To Williams, the game is much bigger than for him to be confined in a box. He knows nobody who watched his film last year would dare make that mistake, putting limits on what he can do. What made Williams special was his crash, ending run plays like a linebacker no matter his pre-snap depth. Williams finished with four tackles for loss, most in the Packers secondary.
He also led the secondary with three interceptions, one more than Xavier McKinney.
There’s a growing market in this league for safeties with that kind of arsenal. The Los Angeles Chargers’ Derwin James and Baltimore’s Kyle Hamilton might fit the box safety label, but they top the position making more than $25 million annually. Nobody thinks of them as just a box safety. They’re queens on the chess board.
Williams has two years left on his rookie deal. He’s in line for an extension next offseason. If he builds on his second NFL season, that fourth-round draft grade won’t matter. He’s in line to potentially push those numbers.
“I just feel like the connotation around box safety,” Williams said, “is that you’re in the box because you’re not capable of doing other things right. You’re not capable of covering somebody. I don’t think that people think that of me, but I feel like it’s just the connotation. Kyle Hamilton is a great run support, he could be a box safety if he’s constantly lined up across the line of scrimmage, but I don’t think you see him as a box safety as much as just do it all. A hybrid guy that can do everything, and that’s what I kind of want to be.
“That doesn’t take anything away from me. I want to be an excellent tackler. I want to be the best in the box. But I also want to be the best in coverage, I want to be the best in post. Being labeled as just as box safety, I don’t have any feeling towards it. I just want to be known as somebody that can do it all, and do it all at a high level.”
Williams could get a chance to prove that this fall. The missing piece in his game, what separates him from other top safeties, isn’t coverage or run support. It’s harassing the quarterback. James has 19 sacks in seven NFL seasons, including a career high 5.5 in 2024. Hamilton has eight sacks in four seasons.
Williams had zero sacks in his first two years.
It’s not a lack of ability. Williams was hardly used as a blitzer in college – just one sack in his first four seasons – until he was a fifth-year senior at Oregon. He finished with 4.5 sacks that fall. In two years under former defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley, the Packers rarely sent Williams toward the quarterback. Almost unfathomable given his supernatural crashes at the line in run defense.
“He triggers so much faster this year,” Hafley said last season. “There’s times it looks like he might be blitzing, but he’s not. His ability to read and react and diagnose things, it’s very quick. And he can get going and make those plays.”
Wouldn’t you know, new defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon might not have much choice this fall. The Packers need all the pass rush they can get, especially early in the season before Micah Parsons returns. Gannon showed an array of corner blitzes in the first padded practice of camp Aug. 3, some scheme creativity that will be needed once September arrives.
Eventually, Gannon’s scheme would be wise to unlock Williams in the pass rush. Alongside linebacker Edgerrin Cooper, he may be best suited among players who aren’t defensive linemen to bolster the rush.
“I didn’t get the opportunity to just kind of let loose and blitz as much as I wanted to last year,” Williams said, “but now that I’ve gained a little trust and Coach JG [Gannon] is seeing what I’m capable of doing around the line of scrimmage, yeah, I’m thinking I’m going to be able to get more of those opportunities. I’m trying not to take any of those for granted. This is the time to wreck shop when you get your number called. And so, yeah, I’m definitely looking forward to making those opportunities come to life.
“I definitely feel like I’m effective. I feel like I’ve got good lateral change of direction when I’m going against a lineman, being able to dip and bend the corner. I’ve got enough agility to be able to do that. And at the same time, if I get a running back in support, a lot of times I’m able to bull or make him miss. I’m looking forward to whatever they want me to do, but I feel like blitzing has become a part of that, and I’m excited for those opps.”
Williams doesn’t want to be known as a blitzing safety either. His preferred label is “master of all trades.” Coincidentally, the part of his game that can grow most also happens to be something the Packers will be searching for once the season begins.
He can’t control the opportunities coming his way, but Williams won’t rest until his game is complete.
“That mindset is great,” McKinney said. “If you want to be a great player, you have to have that mindset. I think that tells you him knowing that he’s a versatile, talented player, and he’s more than just a guy who can play in the box. He knows that. We all know that. So he’s going to keep progressing and keep finding ways where he can get better.”
This article originally appeared on Packers News: Packers’ Evan Williams out to prove he’s not ‘just a box safety’
Reporting by Ryan Wood, Green Bay Press-Gazette / Packers News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Ryan Wood, Green Bay Press-Gazette | USA TODAY Network
