Eddie Williams Has Been Learning From Mike Sellers
As I mentioned on Twitter earlier today, the Redskins signed rookie FB Eddie Williams off the practice squad to fill the roster spot vacated by Chris Samuels. In actual point of fact, this may or may not mean much: Williams, playing fullback, is likely competing with Quinton Ganther for extremely limited scraps of time behind Mike Sellers.
But that doesn't diminish his excitement.
"It's nice," Williams said after practice today. "It's real nice, a blessing and everything. I just have a lot of work to do, and I hope it's just beginning. I feel like I've got a lot of potential, and I've just gotta work hard."
In fact, he's already been working hard: working to overcome a knee injury that dropped him in the 2009 draft, and working to move to fullback from his college position of tight end.
According to head coach Jim Zorn, a lot of that hard work is already paying off. "He's definitely transitioned to fullback and is healthy," Zorn said today. "He's in a learning mode but we want to step that up because he has been improving as we've gone along here, and instead of going out and trying to find another guy we decided to elevate from within and develop the guys we really wanted to look at in the first place."
Williams himself sounded a little less certain, but only a little. "My knee feels great," Williams said. "No brace or anything like that. It's just a matter of getting the leg stronger, but really it's a non-factor at this point. I've just gotta keep improving every day like I have been doing. I've gotta keep getting my knee healthy, and get in where I fit in, really. Do some special teams -- there are some guys hurt, so maybe I can squeak in there -- and fill in on offense when I can."
The transition from tight end to fullback can be more challenging than people think, and involves a lot of work improving blocking skills. Fortunately, Williams has a Pro Bowler teaching him what to do.
"I'm gettin' a lot better blocking-wise," Williams said. "At first, especially with the knee injury, I couldn't really get my knees low. I couldn't really bend down and get underneath some of the blocks. Mike [Sellers] is helping me a great deal with that. I think I'm doing a good job, but there's still a lot of room to improve."
Sellers, Williams says, brings a different kind of intensity to his teaching than he does to his blocking. "He's a good teacher, but real laid-back," Williams said. "The way he teaches is the opposite of the way he plays. He does a good job of coaching you up; if you've got a question, you come to him, and he pretty much explains it even better than I understand it from the coaches."
So, then, what does Sellers -- appearing rested and invigorated by a bye week of deep-sea fishing -- think of his pupil?
His answer is as laid-back as Williams claims his teaching style is. "You know," Sellers said mildly, "can't really tell until the bullets start to fly. All he's been doing is pretty much scout team stuff. We'll see how much he's studied up. He's gotta get the special teams part. I don't know how much playing time he'll get outside of that."
Given that Sellers can be a bit of a prankster, I had expected something more than that -- "He gives everybody a hard time, and I'm one of those guys," Williams had said -- so I told Sellers so.
"He's a rookie," Sellers said. "Of course I give him a hard time. I mean, any rookie that gets away with not being picked on must be a real big rookie, or somebody that's REAL scary."
Which isn't exactly how Williams comes across. He spent his bye week back at Idaho for homecoming, where they got their seventh win of the season, and noted, "we haven't been bowl-eligible in twelve or thirteen years, so that's pretty nice."
Idaho wins, Williams gets elevated to the active roster ... all in all, that's a pretty nice few DAYS, right? Williams grinned. "I'd say so, yeah."
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-02-2009 @ 3:59PM
Eric B said...
an unintentional dig:
"The way he teaches is the opposite of the way he plays. He does a good job of coaching you up"
Reply
11-02-2009 @ 4:07PM
Paul said...
Sorry Danny you idiot.. Now one more big name is crossed off! Oh yea, but Danny wants to win so badly..So sick of that line coming out of everyones mouths. He dosent want to win anymore than I do, or the fans do
From NFL.com
Holmgren: Redskins’ treatment of Zorn was wrong
Posted: November 2nd, 2009 | NFL.com Staff | Tags: Jim Zorn, Mike Holmgren, Washington Redskins
The bridge that was connecting Mike Holmgren to the Washington Redskins head coaching job, should it come open, might have been blown up on Monday. And Holmgren was the one holding the gasoline can in one hand and a burned match in the other.
On the “The Waddle and Silvy Show,” Holmgren was asked by the Chicago radio hosts, Tom Waddle and Marc Silverman, what he thought about the Redskins removing the play-calling duties from head coach Jim Zorn, who was Holmgren’s quarterbacks coach in Seattle.
“I thought it was very unfair to put him in the position. The position they put Jim in, it shouldn’t happen,” Holmgren said. “You can be upset with me as a play-caller or how the team’s going, (then) fire me. But don’t do that. Don’t pull the rug out from under me, tie my hands, make me look foolish … take away what I came there for to do in the first place. Don’t do that.”
It has been rumored that the Redskins were on Holmgren’s short list of teams he would like to coach should he come out of retirement in 2010, an idea he has been publicly pushing for months. He has said on at least one occasion that he would love to coach on the East Coast after long stints in the Midwest with Green Bay and the West Coast in Seattle.
Time will tell if he has eliminated himself from the Redskins job after his strong comments on Monday, or if Holmgren was eliminating himself after witnessing the team’s treatment of a good friend.
“That bothered me a lot,” Holmgren said. “Jim Zorn is one of the nice people. I’m a nice guy, but I’m not that nice. Jim Zorn is really a nice man. What they did, I did not like it at all.”
Reply
11-02-2009 @ 4:34PM
debbie shipp said...
we could use a whole lot on offense, but i knew they wouldn't put Marko Mitchell in the mix. thomas and kelly really haven't shown much so why not put Mitchell in there (rookie or not) other teams have done it and look @t heir success! but then again we are dealing with the skins and danny and vinny!! GO FIGURE!! JC may not trust his o-line (can't really blame him) but when they know that why not let him take a tumble some!! he needs to be faster (go no huddle) something's gotta give!!
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11-02-2009 @ 5:01PM
danielnick said...
This is all part of the Redskins new philosophy - started with hiring an offensive coordinator and making him a head coach - to get players who excel in one position, and then move them to another. They have taken Orakpo and made him a linebacker, Randell El and made him a punt returner... sort of..., and now they'll take Sellers and make him a tackle once the rookie has been switched from a tight end to a fullback.
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11-02-2009 @ 10:04PM
fft5305 said...
WTF? We lose a Pro Bowl tackle, and have problems with depth all over the O-Line, so he replace him with.... a fullback? Good one, Vinny!
Reply
11-03-2009 @ 1:24AM
bernpfeif said...
Its not a replacement for Samuels, its a replacement for Cooley. Sellers knows a lot of TE/H Back sets and can be used in that role as a blocker more often with Williams taking some snaps at FB and vice versa since Willaims was a TE. Not everything the team does deserves a sarcastic remark.
Reply
11-03-2009 @ 11:40AM
danielnick said...
If it wasn't for sarcasm I'd be crying. Until we get a healthy, young O line it's just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. But that doesn't mean I don't love my Skins.
HAIL TO THE REDSKINS!
11-10-2009 @ 7:05PM
alyssaramos said...
Williams is going to be one of the best players on this team i would bet my life on it, everything he touches he has learned and conquered. im very happy with this choice Go Skins and Go E. Williams!
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