Michael Williams never thought that one day he would look back on being part of a wave of offensive linemen from Alabama who flooded the NFL’s draft classes in a three-year period.
Williams was a tight end when the Lions drafted him in the seventh round in 2013, but his teammates on the Crimson Tide regarded him as a blocking specialist who performed like a sixth offensive linemen.
“They always included me,” Williams said after Friday’s light training-camp practice. “I was a sixth lineman with soft hands.”
In time – and a short time, at that – Williams became an official member of Alabama’s draft class of linemen, not an honorary one.