The Las Vegas Raiders’ offensive line showed growth down the stretch of last season, and all five starters from the second half of the campaign return, providing optimism for the unit moving forward. However, the position group — especially Dylan Parham, Jordan Meredith and Jackson Powers-Johnson — will be put to the test in Week 1 against the New England Patriots.
Fresh off winning a Super Bowl with the Philadelphia Eagles, defensive tackle Milton Williams became the second-highest-paid player at his position by inking a four-year, $104 million contract ($26 million per year) with the Patriots. The primary reason for that lucrative deal is that he’s an excellent pass-rusher.
According to Pro Football Focus, Williams finished the regular season with 40 pressures, which was 19th among interior defenders despite logging the fewest pass-rush snaps of anyone in the Top 20. Additionally, he ranked second with a 90.4 PFF pass-rush grade and fourth with a 17.7 win percentage, and he added 14 more pressures at a 17.3 percent win rate during the postseason.
Clearly, the former Eagle is someone the Raiders’ offense will want to keep tabs on this Sunday. So, let’s take a look at what he can do.
As most defensive tackles do, Williams primarily wins as a pass-rusher with a nasty bull rush. He has an impressive get-off and uses great leverage, hand placement and leg drive to collapse the pocket. All of that is on display in this rep against the Los Angeles Rams, where he puts the left guard on skates with his leverage and strength before using his hands to escape from the guard and get the sack.
Here, we’ll get another example of an impressive bull rush, but in the Super Bowl against the Kansas City Chiefs this time.
Again, Williams does a good job of getting off the ball, putting his helmet underneath the guard’s and keeping his legs moving through contact to immediately put the offensive lineman on the lineman’s heels. So, even when center Creed Humphrey goes to help the guard, there isn’t much Humphrey can do since Williams is already well into the Chiefs’ backfield.
Also, the defensive tackle is good at getting on an edge and working the lineman’s hands after contact, allowing him to escape the block and finish the rep with a strip sack.
Speaking of working the hands, the fifth-year pro can also “defeat the hands to defeat the man” and win with finesse as a secondary pass-rush move to his bull rush.
Here, he gets to square on the Washington Commanders’ guard and uses a head/shoulder fake to get the guard’s feet to stop. That gives Williams a two-way go, meaning he has a pass-rush lane to the inside or outside of the blocker. Then, he has perfect timing with his hands to prevent the blocker from landing the punch, and he shows some hip fluidity to clear his lower half and get a clean win around the edge.
While he doesn’t get the sack this time, Williams manages to get pressure, make contact with the quarterback and force a bad throw that falls well short of the target for an incompletion.
This time, the offensive line slides the protection to the right (with the left tackle sticking on the edge defender) to help the guard take away the two-way go from Williams. However, it just turns into an opportunity for the pass-rusher to show off his impressive use of hands, again, and athleticism.
Post-snap, Williams recognizes the protection scheme and that there’s an open lane to the outside. Especially with the edge defender occupying the left tackle and no one lined up over the center, the guard has help on the inside but doesn’t on the outside. So, Williams uses his quickness and agility to get into the B-gap, while knocking the guard’s hands down to win with a rip move and force a throw away.
This is the problem with blocking New England’s free agent addition. If the offensive lineman is expecting the bull rush and tries to be more aggressive, Williams is athletic enough to also win with finesse moves.
Obviously, the former Eagle is playing for a new team and in a new system this year. However, I’d expect the Patriots to dial up some line games/defensive tackle twists with him and Christian Barmore on Sunday, since Williams and Jalen Carter were very effective with them in Philadelphia last season.
On this rep, Williams is the looper on the stunt and does a good job of disguising it by working up the field with his first two steps. Then, his athleticism becomes a factor as he’s able to gain ground vertically while moving laterally, exploiting the open pass rush late to get another strip sack.
This time, Williams is the penetrator on a T/E stunt. He crosses the left guard’s face to attack the left tackle’s inside shoulder post-snap, which captures the guard’s attention and gets the guard to follow him. That sets up the edge defender to win at the point of attack against the guard (despite the edge fighting through a chip block), since the guard doesn’t have a chance to set his feet.
Meanwhile, Williams also manages to beat the tackle with power. So, when the edge misses the sack, Williams can clean it up and still get the quarterback on the ground.
Long story short, Parham, Meredith and Powers-Johnson are going to have to have near-perfect technique in pass protection to keep Williams in check one-on-one and be effective communicators to handle the twists/line games on Sunday.
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