{"id":891086,"date":"2026-05-14T14:51:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T14:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/891086\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T14:51:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T14:51:14","slug":"smu-ot-pj-williams-projected-as-1st-round-pick-in-2027-nfl-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/891086\/","title":{"rendered":"SMU OT PJ Williams projected as 1st Round Pick in 2027 NFL Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let the hype train begin for SMU<\/a> offensive tackle PJ Williams<\/a>, who CBS Sports<\/a> projected to land in the 1st Round of the 2027 NFL Draft<\/a>. Josh Edwards has Williams landing at No. 22 to the Denver Broncos.<\/p>\n

After transferring from Texas A&M following the 2022 season, Williams has gone on to play in 38 games with 27 starts, mostly coming at right tackle the past two seasons. The 6-5, 319-pounder from Dickinson, Texas enters 2026 as one of the top offensive linemen in America. <\/p>\n

SMU strength and conditioning coach Shawn Griswold raved about Williams in an interview with On The Pony Express. Williams can play left or right tackle, but has been a mainstay on the right side.<\/p>\n

\u201cPJ Williams, I don\u2019t know what his draft stock\u2019s gonna be but man, they\u2019re getting a long freak,\u201d Griswold said. \u201cHe runs like a really athletic 265-pound tight end and he\u2019s 319. It\u2019s weird. I\u2019m coaching sometimes and I need to coach, but I\u2019m just watching, this makes no sense. You watch that kid on a 3-cone and it\u2019s weird because it\u2019s effortless and he\u2019s just so gifted.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year, Williams is playing more of a leadership role for Garin Justice\u2019s<\/a> offensive line room. He\u2019s one of three returning starters from the 2025 unit along with some other veterans, but he\u2019s helping his teammates.<\/p>\n

\u201cBe all about the team,\u201d Williams said. \u201cGot to stay focused and be about the team. Mostly my head is on coaching the new guys. So, new guys just coming in, getting them prepared. So, that\u2019s my biggest focus. Just staying consistent, being me, keeping my head on a straight path and coaching the new guys. So, that\u2019s how I do it. That\u2019s just who I am, to be honest. I feel like I\u2019m all about the team kind of guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams was a Second Team All-ACC pick after his 2025 season, which came after an All-ACC Third Team pick in 2024. Coming out of high school<\/a>, he was an Under Armour All-American, ranking as a Top 100 prospect and Top 10 offensive tackle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Let the hype train begin for SMU offensive tackle PJ Williams, who CBS Sports projected to land in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":891087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,6,15,40612],"class_list":{"0":"post-891086","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl-draft","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-nfl","10":"tag-nfl-draft","11":"tag-pj-williams-22-dickinson"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116573495874372675","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=891086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/891087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=891086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=891086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=891086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}