Youthful cornerback group is willing to learn, ask the right questions and put in the work
Cardinals cornerback Garrett Williams talks offseason progress
Arizona Cardinals cornerback Garrett Williams talks offseason progress, what it means to be underrated and what he expects for the upcoming season.
They’re young, they’re overlooked, and they’re hungry.
Ask Garrett Williams and the third-year defensive back for the Arizona Cardinals will tell you that’s a good thing. He believes the team’s youthful cornerback group is ready to serve notice across the NFL.
“I feel like the secondary as a whole could be a really big breakout party,” Williams said Tuesday, July 8, from the Cardinals’ Tempe training facility. “When you think about the whole underrated thing, I feel like that’s kind of one of the things that gets tagged here in Arizona. We have a lot of really, really good players here who showed it last year.
“Going into this season, I think it’s just going to continue to be another coming-out party,” he said. “A lot more people are going to figure out not only just the secondary, but just the Cardinals in general. I feel like this is going to be a big year for us to take that step and continue to get into the national spotlight where guys start really paying attention to us.”
As it relates to Williams, the former third-round draft pick out of Syracuse, at least some folks are starting to come around and take notice. Pro Football Focus, the analytics website, ranked him as the 22nd-best cornerback all-around earlier this offseason and wrote he could vault into the Top 10 this upcoming season.
Considering Williams has only played one full season to date — he missed eight games his rookie year while recovering from major knee surgery — that’s some lofty praise. When asked about it, he shrugged his shoulders and looked like he almost wasn’t buying it.
“I’ve been used to that,” he said matter-of-factly. “That’s what I’ve been dealing with since I was in high school, so it’s really nothing new. I don’t really put too much into it. From where I was at in high school to be where I am now, I feel like if I just keep my eyes on what really matters, everything will kind of work itself out.”
Winning cures everything, and if the Cardinals are truly going to make some noise in 2025, it will have to happen in the standings where they count wins and losses. There are some big expectations for Arizona this year, and, after losing veteran cornerback Sean Murphy-Bunting for the entire season due to a knee injury, the team is going to be counting heavily upon Williams to help lead the cornerback group.
“I feel like it’s any other year in the sense I put a lot of pressure on myself to be the best version of myself each year and try to get better,” he said. “So, I kind of think about it as just another year to get better and improve myself and just continue to build on what I’ve been doing.”
Williams, 24, will nail down at least one starting spot, either continuing as the main man in the slot or moving to one of the outside positions and getting loads of playing time with others such as Starling Thomas V, second-year pro Max Melton, rookie Will Johnson, and possibly others.
“It’s been cool,” Williams said of taking on more of a leadership role this year. “I don’t really think it’s been anything different, just because I feel like I try to go about everything the same way since I’ve been here. Obviously, the coaches and players, as you play more and things, people come to you more. But I try to go about it the same way.
“I feel older, obviously having two (draft) classes come in now, but it’s been really cool.”
The Cardinals have 11 total cornerbacks under contract at present. The average age of the unit overall is just under 24 years. Seven of them arrived via the past three NFL drafts alone.
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They all can play, according to Williams, and he loves the fact that they can grow together and build something special in defensive coordinator Nick Rallis’ system.
“Everybody’s willing to learn,” Williams said. “Everybody’s asking a lot of questions. Everybody’s really trying to dive into the playbook and really understand and be able to have a full grasp of it, so when they go in, they’re doing their thing. I feel like we saw that in OTAs. I feel like from the 1’s, the 2’s and the 3’s, there wasn’t really a drop off, especially from just the execution of the calls.”
The Cardinals caused or created 17 turnovers a year ago — a number Williams thinks should be much higher in 2025.
“Yeah, 100%,” he said. “We have more than enough guys to do it, and I think all of us are really capable. We’re really excited, really looking forward to it, and I feel like we’re all kind of on the same page with that. … We’ve got to get the ball and that’s our emphasis – to get the ball – so I think we’re going to do that.”
One cornerback known for his playmaking abilities is Johnson, the second-round pick from Michigan. He had nine interceptions during his college career, three of which he returned for touchdowns. That’s more touchdowns than he allowed in coverage situations on defense (two).
“The first things that stands out obviously is just the football IQ part,” Williams said of Johnson. “I think that was the thing we saw in him at Michigan was him being really instinctive and making plays on the ball. You take that and you add his size and all those things, and a guy who’s willing to learn, I think that’s a really good mix to add to the room.
“I feel really good about him and everybody else we have in the room.”
Williams wouldn’t divulge what type of expectations the Cardinals are putting on themselves this year, but he said they certainly have goals they hope to reach.
“I think you should always have goals within your own team, your own room,” he said. “It allows you to stay focused. But yeah, I think we’re all kind of on the same page, and we just want to continue to build off what we did last year. We had a lot of good moments compared to the year before, so if we just continue to steadily grow, which I think we’ve all been doing since I got here, I think we’ll be in a really good place.”
Reach McManaman at bob.mcmanaman@arizonarepublic. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter: @azbobbymac and listen to him live every Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. on Roc and Manuch with Jimmy B on ESPN 620 (KTAR-AM).