49er holds no grudges against former team
49ers’ Williams harbors no grudges toward former team
All the bitterness and anger that characterized Trent Williams’ final year in Washington when he sat out the 2019 season, feuded with management and ultimately forced a trade to San Francisco are in the past.
Williams is headed into his first game against his former team on Sunday when the 49ers take on Washington, saying he holds no ill will to his former franchise.
“The people who helped instigate this situation are no longer part of the organization,” Williams said Thursday. “I’m not going to sit here and just carry some grudge just because people expect me to carry it.”
Williams was at odds with the organization when he refused to play last season because he said he distrusted the medical staff and front office because of a botched cancer diagnosis.
He ended his holdout and hoped to be traded before the deadline but a deal never happened. Williams was banished from the facility by former team president Bruce Allen.
Williams thought there was a chance to stay when coach Ron Rivera was hired and there was an overhaul to the organization. But ultimately Williams wanted out and was traded to San Francisco during the draft for a 2020 fifth-round pick and a 2021 third-rounder.
“I think there was a glimpse of hope that I would remain there,” Williams said. “But after talking to Ron, I think we were on two different pages. He was coming into a team that he probably didn’t know all that well. He wanted everybody to kind of show him what they had. At the point I was in my career, I just didn’t feel like I had to show him what I had just to stick around. I knew there would be suitors out there. I just respectfully wanted to go my own way. No disrespect.”
The Niners were quite happy with how it all worked out. Coach Kyle Shanahan was on the staff in Washington when Williams was drafted in the first round in 2010 and knew he’d be the perfect replacement at left tackle for the retired Joe Staley.