Camp tour: Bucs banking Williams has a lot of miles in the chassis
Pete Prisco Aug. 6, 2006
By Pete Prisco
CBS SportsLine.com Senior Writer
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- The nickname, though it has stuck since he was in the 11th grade, doesn't fit. Watch Carnell Williams take a swing pass, plant his foot in the ground and explode out of his cut to make a series of defenders miss, and the last thing that comes to mind is a big, powerful car. "Cadillac," which is what his teammates and fans call him, doesn't seem to work.
Even Williams, the dynamic second-year running back for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, admits the name really doesn't describe his style.
"I'm not a Cadillac," Williams said during a break from Bucs training camp Saturday. "A Cadillac is smooth, big and not fast. I'm more of a Porsche. The name is great, and it has stuck and I'm cool with it, but I'm more like a Porsche because of my speed."
Carnell "Porsche" Williams? Doesn't quite work, either, but you get the idea. At 215 pounds, he is far more of a speed back, a player who can make a defender look silly grabbing for air rather than a plodder who might run over a tackler or two.
It's his size -- he's 5-feet-11 -- that has some worried that Williams might not be able to hold up for the long haul. He burst onto the NFL scene last season as a first-round pick with the idea that he could turn the team's woeful running game around.
In his first three games, he rushed for 434 yards, becoming the first rookie to have three consecutive 100-yard games to open a season. He was the talk of the league, his shoes and gloves from his third game going to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. But then he hurt the arch in his right foot, an injury that had all those doubters whispering the same tune:
We knew he'd break down. The kid isn't big enough.
Williams played out the season, rushing for 1,178 yards to lead all rookies. But the doubters all had their ammunition to fire away: He missed two games and was limited in others. This is what many predicted.
In talking with a defender from another team this summer, he mentioned Williams as a guy he predicts will break down over time, and that the NFL will take a toll on his smaller body.
"He's not big enough," the player said.
Williams laughed when told about that. In fact, he's used to that kind of talk now, and the reality is that he's plenty big for what the Bucs ask him to do. He isn't about to become another Earl Campbell, a guy whose career was shortened by an inordinate number of carries early in his career.
"It motivated me coming into the draft," Williams said. "I heard it then. Guys said I was a smaller back. If you go back and check out the great backs, they weren't big. They were 210 to 215 pounds. Emmitt Smith, Barry Sanders. They weren't big. So the guys who keep saying that type of thing about my size, all that does is keep me motivated to be one of the greats. It keeps me grinding."
At Auburn, Williams was the shifty one, while Ronnie Brown was the bigger, power back. Williams was the more productive of the two with the Tigers, but it was Brown who was taken with the third overall pick by the Miami Dolphins. Williams went fifth to the Bucs.
The two friends then made a wager on who would have the most yards as a rookie.
The smaller, shiftier back won again.
"He had to buy a few dinners here and there during the offseason," Williams said. "But he said he didn't get as many carries because Ricky Williams was there. Now it's fair game. May the best man win."
Don't bet against Williams. Watching him run during the team's training camp here, he appears far more confident in what he's doing. Rather than thinking, he's reacting. And when he reacts, tacklers miss.
He also has that innate ability to pop into a group of defenders and somehow pop out to turn a short gain into a big one. That you can't teach.
"I get into a pile and the first crack I see, I hit," Williams said. "And then I'm gone."
He described his running style as slashing but also quickly noted he isn't about to back away from contact.
"I'm looking to hit you before you hit me," Williams said. "I'm a combination of all things."
Bucs coach Jon Gruden dispels the notion that Williams isn't big enough, pointing to other smaller backs who have had great success.
"How big is Tiki Barber?" Gruden said. "Everybody keeps telling me that he's (Williams) too small. Curtis Martin has done it for 15 years. Is he too small? We're going to be smart with Cadillac. We're not going to hand him the ball every play. We're not going to go out of our way to overwork him. But he's plenty big. His running in the fourth quarter of games should be plenty of an answer for those critics."
The quarter breakdown wasn't available, but, according to Stats Inc., Williams ran for 665 yards in the second half of games, compared to 513 in the first. He had a per-carry average of 4.8 in the second half, compared to 3.4 in the first. All of it shows that he seems to get stronger as the game rolls along.
To help make sure he stays on the field, Williams took a trip to Oregon this summer to have the folks at Nike custom make a shoe for him. Last year, he wore a pair off the shelf. So after experiencing the foot troubles, he decided to go with his own shoe. They arrived last week, and so far Williams loves them.
"They molded a cleat to my foot," Williams said. "It feels a whole lot better. I think it will be a big plus for me."
The Cadillac has new tires. That should make him faster and better, which is scary.
Maybe by December the nickname of Porsche will be the better after all.
Carnell "Porsche" Williams? It doesn't have the ring to it, but the reality is Williams is far more sports car than luxury sedan.
The question now is how many miles can the Bucs put on him?
I have him and Jackson battling for my #2 (behind Tiki) and while I believe early on S Jax will be better, Caddy will have the better year.
