Some NFL players pushed themselves just as hard during the lockout as they would have if they had been working out at the team facilities and attending minicamps. Cardinals defensive tackle Dan Williams is not one of those players.
Williams, the Cardinals’ 2010 first-round draft pick, has been criticized by the coaching staff for showing up to training camp out of shape and overweight at 334 pounds. And he acknowledged that he didn’t put himself through the kinds of workouts that Cardinals strength coach John Lott puts the players through.
“I’ll be the first one to say, I didn’t work out like a John Lott workout,” Williams said. “I should have done more. Next year, I’ll know the proper steps and I’ll put this behind me. . . . I messed up and it won’t happen again.”
Williams says part of his problem in training camp is that Flagstaff, Arizona, is 7,000 feet above sea level.
“I’m not in football shape and 7,000-foot elevation doesn’t really help, but for the most part, I feel good,” Williams said.”
As a rookie Williams played in 15 games but was never in the starting lineup. The Cardinals’ coaches say it’s past time for Williams to start contributing the way they thought he would when they spent a first-round draft pick on him.
“I need more out of him,” defensive coordinator Ray Horton said. “We need him to get into shape, and we need more out of him.”