The NFL season is officially in motion, even if the New York Giants still have a week to go before their first preseason game against the Buffalo Bills. While everyone’s focus has been on the juicy training camp battles (Deonte Banks vs. Cor'Dale Flott and Evan Neal vs. Greg Van Roten), a lesser-known player at the bottom just might be putting together one of the most underrated camps.
Second-year cornerback Dee Williams was thought to be a throwaway name, viewed as a practice body who might sneak onto the roster because of his special teams ability. That’s usually where it ends. But based on how he’s been showing up at camp, especially on Friday, that might not be where it ends anymore.
Williams was flying around during practice, and at this point, he’s forcing the coaching staff to start paying much closer attention.
Dee Williams coming out of nowhere to push for a roster spot at Giants training camp
Per John Schmeelk's practice report, Williams stayed around the ball all day Friday, notching two interceptions and breaking up another pair of passes during team drills.
"There were a number of other excellent defensive plays throughout practice. In addition to the two pass deflections, Dee Williams also had two interceptions on downfield pass attempts from Tommy Devito. He jumped a back shoulder attempt to Felton for his first and beat Cambre to the ball on the right sideline for the other."
This isn’t a one-off either. Williams has put together a few solid days already, and he’s starting to look like more than just a return guy. He’s showing some interesting DB value, which matters a lot more when the team already has multiple options for return and corner duties.
The Giants’ corner room is crowded, but it’s not fully settled. Outside of Banks, Paulson Adebo, and Dru Phillips in the slot, there’s a real competition going on for the back half of that depth chart.
Korie Black, Art Green, Tre Hawkins, Nic Jones, none of those names are locked in. If Williams keeps the good times rolling, it’s going to be hard to justify leaving him off.
There’s also the salary cap angle. Williams comes very cheap, with no guaranteed money and no dead cap hit if he’s cut. But that works both ways — he’s unfortunately the kind of player teams don’t think twice about moving on from if things are quiet. But lately, they've been anything but.
What he does for the remainder of camp and what he does in the preseason will matter, but for right now, he’s making lemonade out of lemons and doing his best to make a name for himself. Who saw this coming?