Buckeys DL coach Larry Johnson GUSHED over Detroit Lions first-round pick Tyleik Williams.
Ohio State defensive line coach Larry Johnson has coached some impressive defensive linemen in his day. He’s helped launch the NFL careers of Penn State legends Tamba Hali and Courtney Brown. As a Buckeye, Johnson coached up the likes of Nick and Joey Bosa, Chase Young, and Sam Hubbard. On Thursday night, Johnson watched the next defensive linemen he coached go in the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft: new Detroit Lions defensive tackle Tyleik Williams.
Speaking to a group of Lions reporters via a teleconference on Friday, Johnson gushed about several aspects of Williams’ game.
His agility… and his smarts.
At 6-foot-3, 334 pounds, Williams is built like a traditional, run-stopping nose tackle. But when asked what stuck out about Williams compared to all of the other legendary players he’s coached, Johnson pointed to Williams’ incredible athleticism.
“Two things that jump right off the bat is his initial quickness off the ball, and for a big guy to be able to bend and turn corners like he does, it’s just unprecedented. You just don’t do that very easily,” Johnson said
Johnson told a story about how shocked they were when Williams arrived on campus overweight, having only interacted with him virtually due to COVID. He was somewhere around 340 pounds. At first, they were naturally a bit concerned. They were expecting him to be around 270 pounds. Then they watched him run a 40-yard dash that Johnson estimates was around 4.9 with a 10-second split of “1.6-something.” At that point, their concerns were put to bed.
“We said, ‘Ok, we’re good. We’re good,’” Johnson said. “That’s special, right? He’s been very quick. He’s got some running back skills with a big body. But, obviously, the thing we did to increase that, it’s just his mindset, how to play, how to play with his hands and feet, disengage and get off blocks.”
Which leads us to Williams’ other superpower: his intelligence. Lions general manager Brad Holmes made mention of Williams’ incredible ability to diagnose a play in front of him with incredible speed and reaction. Johnson agrees:
“I think the thing that separates Tyleik from anybody else is his football IQ,” Johnson said. “He’s really brilliant picking up things, picking up technique, picking up signals from the line of scrimmage. I think that’s his advantage. He’s really smart, and he studies videotape. It makes him really separate himself from most guys I’ve coached.”
Later, he pointed to Williams’ ability to pick up signals in the middle of a game.
“If you watch him real close, you’ll see him sometimes standing and pointing where the play is going,” Johnson said. “He has a way of picking up their signals. Zoro could be left, or Cowboy could be right. He would understand exactly where the ball is going. He’d start telling the guys, ‘It’s going right, it’s going right! It’s going left, it’s going left!’ He would come to the sideline and say, ‘Coach, here’s their signals. Here’s their calls. Here’s their run-game calls.’ He’d listen for that, and I think that’s what separates Ty.”
Yes, he compared Tyleik Williams to Aaron Donald
Whenever you have a big, strong interior defender with surprising burst and nimbleness, he’s naturally going to draw comparisons to one of the best defenders in the history of the game. Johnson did exactly that—knowing the implications that come with it—but he believes there are legit comparisons in the way both players win in the trenches.
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying he’s Aaron Donald, but you know, his movement skills, how he can be able to (change) directions,” Johnson said. “Aaron Donald is really good at going, you know, what we call, ‘Jab-Ole inside-outside.’ He’s got—and then he can go power. I think Tyleik has the same kind of movement because he can go power, he can go finesse up the field if you give him the opportunity. But you know, Aaron Donald was in a league by himself, you know what I mean? I don’t want to put that pressure on Tyleik going into the league as Aaron Donald.”
Obviously, it would be foolish to expect the kind of pass rushing success out of Williams (10.5 sacks in college) to that of Donald (29.5 in college, 110.0 in the NFL). But it is certainly notable that the people who have been close to Williams believe he has a ton of untapped potential in his pass rush, and he very clearly has some special talents.
