When the Green Bay Packers selected safety Evan Williams in the fourth round (111th overall) of the 2024 NFL Draft, expectations were modest. But halfway through his rookie season, Williams had already shattered them, emerging as one of the league’s most impressive first-year players — and a dark horse Defensive Rookie of the Year candidate.
Williams began his collegiate career at Fresno State in 2019 before transferring to Oregon for his final season in 2023. His adaptability and football IQ stood out, making him a late-round steal for the Packers. Despite missing a few games due to hamstring and quadriceps injuries, Williams appeared in 12 regular-season games and Green Bay’s playoff matchup, starting six games in the regular season and one in the postseason.
Position versatility
Safeties in the Robert Saleh lineage of defenses are some of the most versatile chess pieces the group of 11 has on the field. Depending on formation and alignment, the safeties are interchangeable between box and free safety.
Jeff Hafley’s vision is no different. Williams’ versatility allows defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley to deploy him in multiple alignments. Per Pro Football Focus, here are his snap counts on defense:
352 snaps at free safety (per PFF)
91 snaps as a box safety
His presence allowed veteran Xavier McKinney to shift into a strong safety/box role while Javon Bullard moved to nickel, optimizing the entire secondary.
Stout run defender: patience and physicality
Many young safeties struggle with gap discipline, but Williams plays with controlled aggression.
He shows good gap integrity and rarely overcommits, forcing runners into help. Here against Houston, the Packers defense was constantly changing their pre-snap look and changing the picture at the last second on C.J Stroud. There simply isn’t enough time to check out of this run versus an 8-man box.
Williams walks down just before the snap to the line of scrimmage and is the edge setter. Diggs tries to block him, but Williams wards off the block, sets the edge and forces the running back inside, preventing the bounce outside. And then lunges to make the initial tackle.
His tackling efficiency is above average, too. Here he breaks down in space and finishes with authority to stop the Cardinals on a 3rd down in week six of last season.
On a zone read attempt, Williams blitzed off the edge in a safety blitz to shut down the quarterback run. The play is just a classic zone read from the Cardinals with Murray reading the unblocked defensive end for his cue to give to the running back or keep.
Williams triggers quickly off the edge at the snap (run blitz indicator) but feels that there is no blocker sliding to him, sees the run option mesh between the quarterback and running back and halts his momentum to play the quarterback. His responsibility on the zone read is to play the quarterback.
In these examples, one reason Williams was so effective is his ability to block-shed efficiently and not let defenders latch onto him. Here’s another example from week 5 against the Los Angeles Rams.
Here, he uses quick hands and leverage to disengage from two blockers, never allowing the Rams' pullers to block him in space. As a result, he’s able to be in on the tackle for a loss.
Same thing here against the Texans a few weeks later. He wards off the block with nice leverage as he controls the receiver’s inside shoulder, reads the running back's path and sheds to clean up from the missed tackle attempt.
While he was an efficient tackler when in position to do so, one area for improvement in 2025 is that he needs to become a more consistent tackler to make an even greater impact.
His missed tackle rate in 2024 was the 10th highest among all safeties in run defense at 22.2% according to Pro Football Focus. He had a combined 12.7% broken tackle + missed tackle rate according to Sports Info Solutions.
Pass defense: range and recognition
Williams isn’t just a run-stopper—his zone awareness and man-coverage skills have been pivotal. In pass defense, safeties rarely get to make significant plays. That’s why when they do get the opportunity, they have to be on time and decisive to disrupt it.
Williams played with good route anticipation. He can mirror receivers seamlessly and be in a position to force a tight coverage throw.
Here against the Rams in week 5, Williams compresses the throwing window in the end zone, covering Colby Parkinson on an arches concept. Williams absorbs the collision with Parkinson and never breaks stride to undercut the throwing lane and force a high pass.
He also showed an ability to read the quarterback’s eyes and jump routes, forcing the quarterback to throw elsewhere.
Another play in the low red zone, this time versus Houston in week seven, shows Williams erasing Stefon Diggs over the middle on play action. With Diggs on the dig route over the middle, Stroud is looking there first and probably has a touchdown with a throw from a clean pocket and the defenders moving away.
He escapes to his right, sees no one else open, and looks for Diggs again. Williams closes the ground quickly and Stroud comes off the throw again, instead finding Tank Dell in the back of the end zone, but he can’t hang onto the pass. Had Williams not closed Diggs so quickly, Stroud might have had an easy toss for six.
He also has the range to cover the deep third of the field as the free safety.
Here, the Rams are running play action out of shotgun with Stafford wanting to hit a deep post by Tutu Atwell after he rolls out across the formation to his right. Williams, as the deep safety here, opens his hips to turn to run to the middle deep third, and as he does, Stafford uncorks it, thinking he’s got Atwell.
Williams, alone on an island essentially now, flipped his hips and had the angle on Atwell’s route and got there as the pass arrived to break it up.
Final thoughts
Hafley’s defense thrives on pre-snap disguises and late rotations, and Williams’ ability to shift from two-high looks into the box adds a dynamic layer. With McKinney mentoring him, Williams is poised to become a long-term centerpiece of Green Bay’s secondary.
Evan Williams is set for an even bigger role this year as the full-time second safety. If he continues playing this way, he’ll earn a pro bowl and could eventually be an All-Pro player. Packers fans should be thrilled: They’ve found one of their next defensive cornerstones.