2019 NFL Draft: Preston Williams a WR1, but could fall far

The 2019 NFL Draft is not short on boom or bust prospects, but Preston Williams’ past is the only thing holding him back from being a future WR1.

Colorado State Rams All-American receiver Preston Williams has it all.

The 2019 NFL Draft hopeful has ideal NFL size at 6-foot-4, 210 pounds. He runs smooth routes and can change gears to beat press or stop on a dime to come back to the football.

His length gives him a fantastic catch radius and he uses that length to his advantage. Williams understands how to high-point the football and use his body to win contested catch situations.

He’s a fighter after the catch and shows great effort in manufacturing yards once the ball is in his hands.

The only thing preventing him from being potentially the inarguable top receiver in the class of 2019 is an off-field issue in 2017 in which he pleaded guilty to harassment after an altercation with a woman where he reportedly pushed her, grabbed her arm to restrain her, and later made ‘approximately 200’ calls to.

After starting out his college career with the Tennessee program, this incident (which occurred in 2017) was not the best way to start off his new opportunity at Colorado State. As a matter of fact, Williams is lucky he was ever reinstated to the program.

But he got his act together in 2018, his junior season of college eligibility, and wound up having a monster year for the Rams.

Williams caught 96 passes for 1,345 yards and 14 touchdowns, and if this game against Florida is any indication, he could have caught a lot more balls and scored a lot more touchdowns.

Williams shows the entirety of his skill set in that Florida game, working the middle of the field, the sidelines, and blowing the top off the defense. The only issue is, the quarterback doesn’t hit him on all of these plays, so Williams walks away with ‘just’ nine catches for 106 yards.

He could have easily gone for over 200.

There will almost undoubtedly be NFL teams that cross Williams off their draft board completely for his behavior in 2017. There will be other teams willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and believe he’s making the most of his second chance.

If not for his off-field issues, Williams looks like a first-round pick and could solidify that on-field ranking with a strong performance at the CSU pro day. He won’t be able to showcase his athleticism at the 2019 NFL Scouting Combine, as the NFL will not invite him due to his past transgressions.

It’s a justifiable move by the NFL considering the infraction, but it’s also an odd move considering Williams will not get the chance to meet face-to-face with all 32 teams between now and the NFL Draft.

Teams who are legitimately considering drafting him will attend his pro day and maybe try to get a few minutes with him there, but he will have to work with his agent to organize interviews and visits with teams leading up to the Draft.

Those interviews will be crucial and could be the difference between Williams getting picked sometime on day two or day three.

Of course, it’s not draft status that really matters, but Williams has shown he has WR1 skills and now he has to convince teams they aren’t getting the next Martavis Bryant or Josh Gordon.

Not to be insensitive to what those two particular players have gone through off the field personally, mentally, and physically, but they were selected with huge expectations and couldn’t keep themselves available to the teams that drafted them (or traded for them) because of the things that go on off the field.

Understandably, NFL teams will be leery of Williams’ past, but he’s an incredible talent and the way the league works is that guys with this kind of stuff in their past can and will get a second chance if even just one team believes in them.

No one had a more heinous pre-draft infraction than Tyreek Hill, who was kicked off the Oklahoma State football team in 2014 for allegedly choking out and punching his pregnant girlfriend in the stomach. Hill was still drafted in the fifth-round of the 2016 NFL Draft by the Kansas City Chiefs, and is now regarded as one of the best players in the NFL.

There will certainly be a team who takes a chance on Williams to try and get the best out of him. If he can improve upon what he showed this past season at Colorado State, he has the chance to be a WR1 in the NFL sooner rather than later.