NFL Draft
1/5/25
7 min read
Mykel Williams 2025 NFL Draft: Scouting Report For Georgia Bulldogs EDGE Defender
Height: 6050 (unofficial)
Weight: 265lbs (unofficial)
Year: Junior
Pro Comparison: Aldon Smith
Scouting Overview
Georgia Bulldogs edge defender Mykel Williams projects as an impact player at the NFL level. He’s been a valued piece of Georgia defense's defensive rotation for the past three years, illustrating elite physical ability.
There’s a surreal blend of length, power, and fluidity at his disposal. Williams is well versed in attacking gaps from all kinds of angles and release points thanks to the vast roles Georgia has asked him to fill, and he flashes the ability to in both the run and pass game.
Williams should be considered a possible featured player on the edge, but as he continues to refine his block diagnosis skill and his reactive counters, he’d benefit from a defensive scheme that boasts strategic rush plans and a lot of schemed pressure opportunities to attack mismatches in the front.
2025 NFL Combine Results
TBD
Positives
- Hilarious amount of length and separation ability at his disposal to keep his frame clear for continued progress to the ball
- Surprising and easy power allows him to collapse the point of attack in the run game or soften edge angles as a pass rusher
- Really surprising fluidity and body control to contort and attack creases and gaps on twists, stunts, and games
Negatives
- Needs more consistency with his leverage, both with hand placement and his hinges & pad level
- Actual explosiveness and burst out of his stance are sufficient, but he lacks the elite pop that can win him reps consistently with speed
- Durability is in question due to notable injury history (high ankle injury in 2024 opener, foot surgery in spring of 2023)
Background
Williams was born in Columbus, GA, in June of 2004 and will be 20 years old on draft night. He played his high school football for Hardaway HS. Williams garnered significant interest on the recruiting circuit and was ranked as a 5-star recruit (247 Sports) and one of the top-5 recruits in the 2022 class. Initially having committed to USC, Williams flipped to Georgia before signing day and was the star player of the Bulldogs’ recruiting class.
It didn’t take long for Williams to find the field. He set career highs in pressures (33) and run stops (16) as a true freshman rotation piece for the eventual National Champions in 2022. He’s played between 375 and 410 snaps in each of his three seasons with the program and was twice named Second Team All-SEC (2023, 2024) despite dealing with a handful of injuries across the last two seasons.
Williams missed spring practices in 2023 due to foot surgery and then suffered a high ankle sprain in the 2024 season opener against Clemson, which cost him time in the first half of the season.
Tale Of The Tape
If you built a prototypical edge defender in a lab, he’d probably look something like Mykel Williams. There are all the uncoachable elements to his game. Williams has elite length, he offers easy and effortless power, and he illustrates the kind of slippery body control that will allow him to play at steep angles and suddenly clip through creases in the front.
The Bulldogs have embraced his freakish ability by unleashing him in a variety of different alignments and assignments — not overly dissimilar to the ways in which they used Travon Walker. Williams is a more silky, smooth, and fluid player, making him an even more intriguing talent when projecting him into an NFL pass rush room.
Playing time is one of the big marks on his resume. He has not eclipsed more than 425 snaps in any of his three seasons, and Williams has been on the field for a noted majority of pass rush opportunities in each season. Williams has nearly a 2:1 pass rush to run defense ratio for his entire career. The end result is a player that has dominant flashes with intermittent lapses and plenty of room to grow.
Williams’ ability to punch, extend, and stack blocks at the point of attack is exactly what you would want. His placement of hands, thanks in part to his long levers, can help him move forward with more precision to catch blockers tight in the chest. When he does, he’s effortless in his ability to extend and separate before laterally disconnecting from the block and progressing to the football.
Williams will bully tight ends because of his punch power and how quickly he can tap into force and functional power once engaged with blockers. Skill players don’t offer much value here.
As a pass rusher, Williams requires some patience and development but should still afford a team an impactful role early on. He is at his best when he’s parlaying off of blocks with heavy push/pulls or clubs. That same “easy power” shows up when converting a long-arm rush into the chest of tackles, and he’ll successfully compress angles and afford himself greater space to disconnect and disrupt the quarterback.
His length makes him a problem to account for even when he’s still engaged with blockers, and Williams can grab the quarterback or swipe at the ball through the frame of the tackle better than most. The Bulldogs’ pressure scheme unlocked a whole slew of opportunities as they ran rush stunts and games, many of which had Williams as a beneficiary.
Williams is easy to catch his momentum and accelerate through a tight crease while hugging corners into interior gaps — and even if Williams doesn’t get home, his wingspan creates a whole new problem for how to throw around his body and reach. Williams’ alignment versatility (he’s played everywhere from a 0 tech out to a 6) puts him in positions to be the looper or the pick setter.
Williams boasts a good tackle radius and powerful grip strength, so anyone running into his sphere of influence shouldn’t expect added yardage. He’s an impressive talent who also shows the ability to mirror and extend his frame for ball carriers while trying to break his pursuit angle.
Williams’ initial rush counters show variety but will need more precision to afford him more opportunities to finish pure edge rushes. He has good but not great get-off the ball and makes the most of his power to compensate for his modest ability to test vertical sets from tackles. Without that elite burst, hand usage will be the key.
Ideal Scheme Fit, Role
Williams is a scheme-diverse talent who can align and release from tight alignments, wide 2-point stances, or as a traditional, even front end. His power and length make him a prominent presence on the edge, and there’s still plenty of room for refinement with his overall precision of hand usage and technique after playing less than 1,200 snaps across his three seasons.
This is a developmental starter who can fill a slew of assignments. His ceiling is best in a front that attacks protection schemes strategically with pressure packages and games to help create a variety of angles for Williams to penetrate the pocket.
Grade: 83.00/100.00, First Round Value
Big Board Rank: TBD
Position Rank: TBD
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