Washington Redskins Trent Williams
While the Washington Redskins have been dealing with media attention not having to do so much with the x’s and o’s of football, first round draft pick and left tackle Trent Williams has been quietly going about his work. With the Dallas Cowboys arriving Sunday night under the bright lights of a national television audience, he knows he has his work cut out for him to protect his quarterback’s blind side.
Williams will be baptized by fire when he goes up against the Cowboys Pro Bowl defensive lineman DeMarcus Ware, who is a sack-machine. By now Williams knows that the Pro Bowler got hold of Williams’ quarterback Donovan McNabb twice in last season’s playoff game. Dallas won that game soundly, 34-14 and Ware kept pressure on McNabb much of the game.
In 2009, Ware tied for both fourth in the NFC and seventh in the NFL with 11 sacks, had a career-high 45 pressures and forced five fumbles. Last season in their second game against Washington, the former NFC Defensive Player of the Week had five tackles and three QB pressures as the defense forced a shutout for the first time since a 27-0 win at Washington in late 2003. Ware knows he is going up against a rookie and Williams will need to call it up from deep within to stay composed and not become overwhelmed.
Head coach Mike Shanahan has confidence in his first round pick and even went so far as to compare him to Pro Bowl offensive lineman Ryan Clady that Shanahan coached in Denver.
“Trent so far has got that athletic ability,” Shanahan said after practice. “Hopefully he has that same type of game day expertise and composure, because Ryan had that. And I think Trent has a good chance to have that same demeanor.”
As the Philadelphia Eagles’ former quarterback, Donovan McNabb has plenty of experience with the Cowboys’ defense. Last season, the Eagles played the Cowboys three times – twice in the regular season and then in the playoffs. With this being the Redskins first game of the regular season, after Sunday night, McNabb will have played the Cowboys three times in a row. He is well aware of their defensive talents and tendencies.
“When you start with their defense, you start with DeMarcus Ware, and rightfully so,” McNabb said. “He can apply pressure to the quarterback and be very disruptive in the passing game. And you also have to talk about [defensive tackle, Jay] Ratliff. You talk about Brady James, a guy who may not receive a lot of attention but he does a great job for them being that middle linebacker and plugging holes and is going to be disruptive as well in the running game. Their corners are very effective. There’s a reason why they had a top five defense last year and they do a lot of good things to get good field position for their offense.”
The test that Williams faced against the Baltimore Ravens’ defensive lineman Terrell Suggs in the preseason was as good a test as any to prepare for a player like DeMarcus Ware. McNabb, being the veteran he is noticed that Williams worked hard but made mistakes (though he was better against the Jets in the next game) and takes a pragmatic approach to Williams’ inexperience. The QB knows that Williams is not the only player who will be tested.
“You’ve got to understand,” he told reporters, “Trent is a rookie. He’s going to have some ups and downs. The good test for him where he can gauge himself and what he needs to do was Terrell Suggs. [He is] a good speed rusher who can get up low under your pads – he has a bull rush – something DeMarcus does as well. I think he did a great job against Suggs. But [Williams] is a hard guy… very critical of himself. He’ll probably say he didn’t do well. But, we’re all about getting better and it’s going to be a challenge for us. Not just for Trent. For all of us to get out here and be able to execute the plays the right way, put points on the board and hopefully come out with a win.”
Offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan is aware of the challenge that Williams is up against Sunday and takes an approach similar to McNabb’s.
“I think that was a good test to help prepare him, very similar guys,” Kyle Shanahan said of Williams going up against Suggs. “It’ll be similar issues this week.”
As far as Williams is concerned, he knows Ware is going to be baptism by fire.
“It would be easier to start off with someone not as good,” he said. “But it sets the stage.”