
The Most Important Packers: No. 16 — Evan Williams
The Green Bay Packers went 11-6 last season, sweeping the NFC West and the AFC South along the way.
Overall, though, no one in the building was happy.
The Packers failed to build on their terrific finish to the 2023 campaign, settled for the No. 7 seed in the NFC playoffs, and lost a Wild Card game to eventual Super Bowl champion Philadelphia.
Afterwards, general manager Brian Gutekunst turned up the heat on everybody in the building.
'We need to continue to ramp up our sense of urgency,' Gutekunst said. 'I think it's time we started competing for championships.'
Those are fair expectations.
The Packers return 20 of 22 starters, and appear to have upgraded the roster via free agency and the draft. With several third and fourth year players trending upward, Green Bay should be poised to make a move.
'I think they're ready,' Gutekunst said.
Now, it's time for the Packers to prove their G.M. right.
Green Bay's first training camp practice is July 23. Between now and then I will count down the '30 Most Important Packers' heading into the 2025 campaign.
At No. 16 is safety Evan Williams.No. 16
Evan Williams, S
Last season
Williams was named to the Professional Football Writers of America (PFWA) All-Rookie team after an impressive first season.
Williams made six starts and played in 13 games as a rookie. He had an interception, forced a fumble, had three passes defensed and 47 tackles.
Williams didn't play a single snap in the Packers' Week 1 loss to Philadelphia in Brazil, and he played just 34 snaps from scrimmage in Green Bay's first four games. But he moved into the starting lineup in Week 5 and made six starts overall.
What slowed Williams were hamstring and quadriceps injuries, as well as a late-season concussion. In all, Williams missed four games and couldn't finish two others.
'He's got to continue to learn his body,' Packers coach Matt LaFleur said of Williams. 'Because I know we had, there were some injuries last year just to make sure that he's available.'Career to date
Williams played four seasons at Fresno State before transferring to Oregon in 2023.
During his five college seasons, Williams recorded 307 tackles, 16 tackles for loss, 5½ sacks, four quarterback hurries, four interceptions, 16 passes defensed, four forced fumbles and five fumble recoveries.
Overall, Williams earned some type of all-conference honors each of his final four college seasons.Outlook
Williams passed fellow rookie Javon Bullard and earned a starting safety job next to Xavier McKinney after a month last season. If Williams can stay healthy, he should keep that position — and could become one of the NFL's top young safeties.
Williams posted a 71.9 grade from Pro Football Focus in his first six games of 2024. In his final seven games, though — when injuries hit — Williams had an average grade of 58.3.
Williams has the intelligence and athleticism to develop into a high level safety. The key will be staying on the field.They Said It …
'He can be as good as he wants to be. I think he has a weapon in his brain with how smart he is and how aware he is. That accelerates your ability to play early in this league because you can grasp the concepts and what we're trying to get done.' — Packers defensive backs coach Ryan Downard on Williams'I feel like I'm a guy that learns through experience, learns through being in the fire more than just sitting back and watching. I feel like each rep, each step I'm taking this year, I'm just gaining confidence, gaining experience. Honestly I'm just looking to take that step being a confident football player out there and hopefully I'll have the defense just playbook in my back pocket so I can take that next step and think about other things; think about ok what is the offense trying to do here? What is this formation telling me? I feel like I could take steps in that department and taking it a step further and becoming a more proactive player rather than just being reactive.' — Williams on having a year of experience'I think just building on what he's already done and being consistent with it again. Another guy that loves the game. He's extremely intelligent. He comes in with the right mentality. And he just works.' — Packers coach Matt LaFleur on what Williams must do to improveTHE TOP 30
• No. 30 — RB MarShawn Lloyd
• No. 29 — WR Dontayvion Wicks
• No. 28 — S Javon Bullard
• No. 27 — WR Savion Williams
• No. 26 — LB Isaiah McDuffie
• No. 25 — OL Jordan Morgan
• No. 24 — WR Matthew Golden
• No. 23 — CB Carrington Valentine
• No. 22 — WR Romeo Doubs
• No. 21 — QB Malik Willis
N0. 20 — DE Lukas Van Ness
• No. 19 — RG Sean Rhyan
• No. 18 — LT Rasheed Walker
• No. 17 — DT Devonte Wyatt
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
20 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Jonquel Jones returns to the Liberty lineup, leads team scoring in win over Fever
NEW YORK (AP) — During the Liberty's lineup announcement Tuesday night, one name brought the Barclays Center crowd to its feet: Jonquel Jones. She held up a heart to the crowd. In the words of head coach Sandy Brondello — 'It's a happy day. JJ's back.' The Liberty star center officially returned to the court in New York's 98-84 win over the Fever on Tuesday night. Jones, last season's WNBA Finals MVP, was playing for the first time since June 19 with an ankle injury and scored a team-high 18 points. 'It felt great to be back out there,' Jones said after the game. 'Obviously, it's been a while since I've been on the court, but my teammates have held it down while I was out, and everybody was excited for me to be back in. And I was just as excited.' Jones, the Liberty's third-highest scorer, has averaged 12.1 points, 9.6 rebounds and 2.3 assists this season, while shooting 43.8 percent from behind the arc. New York struggled in her absence, going 5-4 after starting out the season 9-0. They are undefeated with Jones on the court. It's been a touch-and-go season for Jones so far. She'd been limited to just 10 games this season, initially injuring her ankle in early June and taking a brief absence before returning and aggravating the injury. ___ AP WNBA:
Yahoo
20 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Lakers have officially signed guard Marcus Smart
The Los Angeles Lakers made another significant addition to their roster over the weekend when veteran guard Marcus Smart agreed to sign with them following a contract buyout. He had been traded to the Washington Wizards in February, and he was set to make $21.6 million this coming season. He has cleared waivers, allowing the Lakers to officially sign him on Tuesday to a two-year, $11 million contract. He will wear jersey No. 36 for the team. The franchise issued a press release regarding Smart's official addition to its roster. 'Adding a player like Marcus Smart to our roster allows us to compete at the highest level,' Lakers President of Basketball Operations and General Manager Rob Pelinka said. 'Marcus epitomizes what it means to prioritize winning above all else – whether that's making huge plays on the defensive end or hitting critical shots in key moments of the most intense games. He knows and understands playoff winning and will be a key leadership voice in our group. Surrounding our stars with two-way players like Marcus is critical to our overall vision of how we want to play and win next season. This is an exciting player acquisition, for sure.' Smart, 31, was named the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year for the 2021-22 season and has been named to the All-Defensive first team three times. He has long been one of the league's best backcourt defenders, and he has the ability to effectively guard both small guards and taller wing players. The former Boston Celtic has career averages of 10.6 points, 4.6 assists and 1.6 steals over 11 seasons in the NBA. This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Lakers have officially signed guard Marcus Smart
Yahoo
20 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Mets' Frankie Montas confident with progress, pitch movement after longest outing of season
Frankie Montas fell just short of becoming the second Mets starter to complete an outing of six-plus innings over the last month, but that's neither here nor there. His job was to keep the game close, and that task was accomplished. While the veteran right-hander's performance didn't include style points, it was still a winning effort, as his 5.2 frames of two-run ball with a season-best six strikeouts helped the Mets rally to a 3-2 win over the Angels on Tuesday night at Citi Field. "I threw some good splitters, good sweepers, good sliders. I thought I had a nice amount of pitches working tonight," Montas said after the game. "I feel pretty good. I would've loved to finish the sixth inning, though. But step by step, I definitely feel better and better every time I step on the mound. I feel like my pitches are moving better. "I'm getting more movement, more strikes. I keep making progress every start... The first two innings, I thought I was missing my location. I tried to throw my pitches in a better spot after that. Things were working better after that." Montas flirted with trouble from the jump, allowing a first-inning double and then a single to Mike Trout that fortunately resulted in Nolan Schanuel being tagged out on a bang-bang play at the plate. In the second, he surrendered a two-out, no-doubt solo homer to Jorge Soler that broke the ice, and Schanuel managed to get some revenge with an RBI double in the fifth that bumped the Angels' lead to 2-0. But Montas retired eight straight batters at one point, and although he left the mound trailing with eight hits allowed, he ultimately earned his third win of the campaign with a boost from the Mets' bats. "I thought he was good. I thought the secondary pitches were good," Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said of Montas. "He used all of them in the strike zone, expanded when he needed to. He's got to be able to compete in the strike zone with the secondaries -- whether it's the split, the slider, the sweeper. The cutter elevated against a couple of lefties. "The other good sign for me was, he was able to reach 97 [mph] in that sixth inning to get Soler for strike three in the top of the zone. That's a good sign. For him to reach there at 90 pitches, it was really good to see. So, a very good outing and very good step for him." Montas, who threw 58 of a season-high 91 pitches for strikes, now owns a 4.62 ERA and 1.30 WHIP (five starts) since coming off the injured list in late June. He also has a strikeout-walk ratio of 23-to-6 across 25.1 innings, and his reliability will be put to the test next week in a scheduled road matchup with the Padres.