Former Alabama guard Jonah Williams is drawing rave reviews for his mental preparation to the game, which is showing NFL teams an impressive level of commitment to his craft.
Williams devised his own methods of tracking tape study, watching the defensive linemen he’s preparing to line up against, categorizing each move they make, and entering all the data into a spread sheet to hep analyze what he can expect to see on game day.
Former Browns left tackle Joe Thomas took a look at the way Williams prepares and told ESPN it’s “genius,” and that Williams is far ahead of most young linemen mentally.
“It just shows you his level of preparation,” Thomas said. “It says a lot about the success he will have at the next level, because that is the type of preparation you need to have to be able to gain an advantage over your opponent. I wasn’t that advanced when I was in college.”
Williams shared a spreadsheet with Austin Gayle of Pro Football Focus, and it shows the simple way he distills a lot of information that he picks up from film study. It’s an impressive level of preparation from an impressive young player.