Bryce Young 2.0: UW's Freshman is a Potential #1 Overall Draft Pick in Three Years
Bryce Young 2.0: UW's Freshman is a Potential #1 Overall Draft Pick in Three Years
Good grief! Have you ever in your life heard such a bunch of whiny, provincial crybabies? I swear to God, this entire city has lost its tiny, rain-addled mind!
“Dr. Crane, we're still on the air.”
- Frasier, TV Show
Hello pigs, welcome back. I’m sure many of you already know, but in case you don’t, there’s apparently been a new star making waves in Seattle this spring—not on the airwaves—no, but on the gridiron. Demond Williams is a true freshman QB that new UW head coach Jedd Fisch recruited at Arizona. By all indications so far, he has an illustrious football career ahead of him.
Of course, we know that Mississippi State transfer Will Rogers will probably be the starter this year, but then again, who knows. Here’s an update from camp back in April:
For nearly the entire duration of Spring practice thus far, Williams Jr. had been running with the second team. There’s no official depth chart yet, so there’s no true “second team.” But all of his 11-on-11 reps had come after Will Rogers III.
That changed on Saturday. For the first time of the Spring, we saw Williams Jr. get on the field first for the 11-on-11 live session at the end of practice. He lined up next to Jonah Coleman at running back, with Denzel Boston and Hunter split out wide. The quarterback would make it worthwhile.
Given the nature of the experience in this quarterback room, the gap between Williams and Rogers, the presumed starting quarterback for 2024, was considered to be significant. But that gap appears not as large as it was thought to be just two weeks ago.
OK, well, hello Seattle, I’m listening…
It couldn’t be more obvious that Fisch and staff are sky-high on [Demond] Williams. Through five practices, he continues to shine with both an impressive arm and with quick mobility when he decides to tuck and run. He certainly appears to be taking command of the backup job.
Naturally, since the writer mentions Fisch and his staff, let’s see what he had to say about his QBs:
He [Rogers] has started a ton of football games. It was really important that we brought in a veteran quarterback . . . we also brought in Demond Williams . . . Williams was committed to us at Arizona and this kid is elite. Elite, elite, elite talent. He has got everything that you want in a player. I said that your GPA and your 40 time is about the same, like 4.4? It’s unbelievable. He’s special in a lot of ways.
Very nice. Impressive. But what is it exactly that Williams is doing that has him garnering all this praise? Conveniently, a beat writer recently went into some depth on that:
The calendar still says April. And if he hadn’t enrolled early, Demond Williams Jr. would otherwise still be a high school senior. But the quarterback has already made his presence on the Washington football roster known . . . What he’s doing at practice in a college football uniform is turning heads already.
Williams throws, arguably, the best football in the quarterback room at Washington. His throwing mechanics are compact and quick, wasting little movement on his delivery. The football bounces out of his hands, not seeming to need much effort to deliver the ball vertically or to the sidelines.
On multiple occasions, Williams has shown his ability to put touch on the football and place it in the hands of receivers 30 or 40 yards downfield. He can also release the football with velocity to multiple levels. The quarterback has changed arm angles to fit it through the front level of defenders and has driven it to the sidelines over the middle level of the defense.
Williams has shown that he’s a pass-first quarterback throughout the Spring on Montlake. But when the pocket breaks down or if his receivers aren’t open, he can elude pressure at a high level. His acceleration from first gear to full speed is almost instantaneous. We’ve seen Williams pop through a folding pocket and get quickly into the second level of the defense on multiple occasions.
I don’t know about you but I’m seeing a lot of Bryce Young in that synopsis. As a refresher, here is what 247 Sports’ Greg Biggins said about Young coming out of high school:
Has a live arm and is able to throw just as well outside the pocket as he does from inside.
His ability to escape pressure and extend plays is as good as you’ll see at the high school level. Will scramble to make a play with his arm more than taking off and running, although he does have the ability to run for plus yards.
Almost looks more comfortable when the play breaks down and he can improvise and make a play with his instincts. Plays with a poise and savvy beyond his years. Never looks flustered or nervous in the pocket. Has improved his touch and accuracy on the deep ball, but it’s an area we think he can continue to get better. Has an advanced feel in the pocket and is excellent going through progressions and finding his secondary targets.
OK, now that you’ve been sufficiently waterboarded with quotes, let’s dive into the meat and potatoes of this article. We will begin where we usually do…
Coaching & System
The aforementioned Jedd Fisch is the new head coach of UW, and he brought his Arizona OC Brennan Carroll (son of Pete) over with him. These two served together at Arizona over the last three years, but most of Fisch’s recent background is on the NFL side.
He was the QBs coach of New England in 2020, and assistant OC (2019) and offensive assistant (2018) of the LA Rams. He also OC’d the Jacksonville Jaguars from 2013-14. Of note, during his time with the Rams he coached Jared Goff to back to back seasons of over 4600 passing yards.
In between his NFL contracts he was the QBs coach at Michigan (2015-16), and OC’d UCLA (2017). Looking at the numbers, I wouldn’t say there were any noteworthy QBs during that span, so I’ll save you the trouble of listing them out.
Below is a table of some of the tendencies of this staff dating back to 2018. As mentioned, since they’ve only been coaching CFB since 2021 during that span, we only have three seasons to leverage.
The seconds per play last year was about average, ranking 60th in the FBS at 27.1 per play. Historically, as we can see on the table, Fisch’s teams move faster, averaging 25.12 from his time at Arizona, which would have ranked around 40th in the FBS last year. The run pass split clearly favours the passing game, but is overall fairly balanced at around a 54/46 split. The most exceptional season being the 2021 campaign, where the Wildcats passed it almost 57% of the time.
Below is a summary of some of the relevant QB stats from Fisch’s time at AU (ignore the projections):
In case you’re wondering what the Att % is, this is how many of the passes the QB1 attempted from that team. In the absence of injury, you would assume this would be 90+%, which it was in 2021.
Demond Williams (5’11, 185)
It’s such a typical CFB move to have a discrepancy in listed measurements on a player. 247 had Williams at 5’9 in high school, Fantrax and the team website have him at 5’11. I suppose it’s possible he grew in the time from when 247 measured him and now. As if the comparisons to Bryce Young weren't strong enough (looking at you, Alabama team website).
A composite and internal four star according to 247 Sports, Williams originally committed to play at Arizona under Fisch and his staff, before following that group up to the Pacific Northwest.
As quoted above, it sounds like he’s already making his presence known within UW’s program, and because I’ve decided that you haven’t had enough yet, here are some notes from a spring scrimmage:
For his part, Demond Williams made some really nice throws including the throw of the day that found its way into the hands of Coutts for a long touchdown. Williams was forced to his left by the rush of Lance Holtzclaw, he evaded the pursuit and hit the walk-on tight end for 40 yards.
On Saturday’s sixth practice of Spring, Williams tossed five touchdowns during the 11-on-11 team drills. His second and third touchdown passes were the most impressive. The offense lined up around the 30 yard line approaching the end zone. Williams took the snap and delivered a lofty throw that traveled over 35 air yards towards the far sideline of the East end zone.
More specifically on Williams’ rushing ability:
During Saturday’s practice, he did just that in one of the 11-on-11 sessions. Williams saw the pocket was closing and he escaped forward, angling towards the far sideline to his right. He straightened out in the middle of the defense before cutting left all the way to the near sideline. He gained over 25 yards on the play before darting out of bounds right in front of us. The play received audible “woah’s” along the sideline with the media.
On another occasion, Williams also scrambled out of the pocket in the red zone straight up the middle for a touchdown. His head-turning acceleration was on display for both of these plays. Williams told us in his media availability last week that he ran a 4.40-second 40-yard dash at Elite 11 last summer.
Closing
To my surprise, Williams has CFF ADP, which is listed at 361 according to Campus2Canton. In DEVY drafts, he is selected the highest at 127.7 (C2C is 241.3, but April ADP climbed to 207).
Those numbers make sense to me. On the CFF side, you could justify taking a late shot on him in a 30 round Bestball. On the C2C and DEVY side he’s a no brainer selection. I think he should probably be even higher than what he’s listed at considering how the staff apparently feels about him and the potential to replace Rogers in year one. Though I can understand if someone feels his NFL upside is limited due to the size profile.
However, we’ve seen that the new NFL is much more forgiving of physical deficiencies compared to previous decades. I suppose Bryce Young’s career trajectory over the next few seasons will have some impact on the stock of players like Williams. At the very least, he seems like a good candidate to be a strong CFF asset sooner rather than later. ◾
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