Vikings defensive tackle Elijah Williams was not among the 329 players invited to the NFL scouting combine. He was not among 257 players selected in this year’s NFL draft. He was not among 18 undrafted rookies the Vikings guaranteed money to after the draft.
“I’m really still trying to process it,” Williams said. “It’s almost as if I’m still sort of in a dream. But I understand that I have to come every day, keep my head down, continue grinding, because this is only the start.”
Williams took the unlikeliest of paths to make the season-opening roster as a tryout player just four months ago. He reported to the Vikings facility for a three-day rookie minicamp in May, guaranteed nothing but the workout clothes he was given. He couldn’t even try out in pads, since NFL rules prevent padded practices before late July.
Vikings defensive lineman Elijah Williams runs through drills during practice at the TCO Performance Center in Eagan on Aug. 19. (Elizabeth Flores/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
“I came to the tryout knowing, ‘Alright, we’re not going to be doing much,’” Williams recalled. “I just gave it my all and tried to not make the same mistake twice.”
After the draft, Vikings defensive line coach Marcus Dixon, a fellow HBCU graduate from Hampton University, quickly reached out to Williams, Morgan State’s career leader in sacks (31) and the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year in 2024. The Vikings were among a handful of NFL teams, including the Ravens, Giants and Jets, pursuing Williams, according to his agent Dwayne Treece.
But Williams picked the Vikings and Dixon, who needed only the first practice of the three-day tryout to tell coach Kevin O’Connell that they had something in this 6-foot-3, 298-pound defensive tackle.
“The effort,” O’Connell said, adding Williams “had a little pop to him throughout the drills, and that’s really what’s shown up throughout training camp.”