San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
New 49ers tackle Williams serving up pancakes
The 49ers’ international house of pancakes was open for business last Sunday, with no social distancing.
On the last play of the third quarter, Trent Williams, the new left tackle, blasted off the line on a running play, set a world record for the 7yard sprint (for a 320pound man) and knocked Cardinals linebacker Jordan Hicks flat onto his wallet.
The classic pancake block may have been the NFL hit of the week.
It wasn’t just the pancake last Sunday. Williams had himself an afternoon, nullifying Chandler Jones, Arizona’s star edge rusher.
“Trent Williams was dominant,” said Jeff Deeney of Pro Football Focus. “His 88.6 overall grade was the second highest of any tackle . ... Allowed just one pressure (hurry), and was excellent in the run game.”
Head coach Kyle Shanahan’s famously complex playbook is only as good as the players executing the plays. That’s why the 49ers traded for Williams, who has a track record for bringing Shanahan’s playbook to life.
So far it has been a heartwarming reunion of player and coach. Williams spent the first four seasons of his NFL career (201013) playing under Shanahan, then the offensive coordinator of the Washington Football Team.
So when the 49ers snagged Williams for third and fifthround draft picks to replace the retiring Joe Staley, Shanahan knew what he was getting and Williams knew what to expect. Sort of.
In a phone interview last week, I asked Williams if Shanahan’s playbook is as crazy as we’ve heard.
“Yeah, it is,” Williams said. “I underestimated the complexity of the playbook when I arrived. It does derive from the same schemes and the same plays that I learned earlier in my career, but he kind of took it to an expert level, if that make sense.
“So it’s the same scheme, but kind of new and different assignments, different nuances that can change things . ... It’s not really changed, but he added so much to it that it makes it that much harder to stop.”
And harder to learn? “Man, it is, whooo, it’s hard,” Williams said with a laugh. “For me, pretty much everything (in the playbook) is new. He keeps it turning, there’s always something new, always a nuance added to something old. Kyle definitely is a catalyst for change in this game.”
There seems to be a touch of mad scientist to Shanahan’s schemes.
“He’s not afraid to step out on the edges of creativity and do things that conventional football wisdom says is impossible, what may seem to be impossible,” Williams said. “But we believe him, so it’s a perfect marriage. He is doing things that are kind of outliers, but he’s got the team that believes everything he says, so nobody is questioning.”
Seriously, though, playing Oline is blocking. Don’t the 49ers’ linemen ever look at the playbook and say, “Come on, this is too many plays”?
“Nah, that’s never anybody’s mind frame,” Williams said. “You want more plays. It’s a lot more to memorize, but the more plays in your arsenal, the less a defense can hone in on one specific thing. Keeps them off guard and keeps you with that firststep advantage.”
So Williams doesn’t ever wish he played back in the old days, when an offensive lineman had only one play: block?
“As you can see, those salaries are growing, too,” Williams observed. “So to ask us to do a little bit more, the asking price is up, too. It’s a winwin for everybody.”
Williams clearly was a Shanahan fan back in the day in Washington, and he said he’s even more impressed now.
“Kyle has grown into leadership,” Williams said. “His dad (former Washington head coach Mike Shanahan) was an awesome leader, and I think that’s where (Kyle) gets it from.
He didn’t have to fill the role of motivator or leader (in Washington) because his dad played that role so well.
“But as a head coach, he’s taken right after that. I see that same motivation his dad gave us, had us ready to play, even when we had nothing to play for. I see that in Kyle. It’s refreshing, to say the least.”
Kyle Shanahan clearly returns the respect. He was happy to reunite with a left tackle who has the smarts and athletic ability to bring that playbook to life. Williams said Shanahan sent him a video of the pancake Sunday night with a message: “Wow. It’s good to have you back.”
Williams notably ran 4.8 in the 40yard dash at his combine. Now he’s 32, with nine seasons of hard knocks on his odometer, and he’s not the athlete or player he was a decade ago. He’s far superior.
Williams said he could probably beat 4.8 now and added he has been clocked at 20 mph in full pads. The guy teammates call “Silverback” is even more athletic than when he picked up that nickname in college.
“I’ve done a ton of work on my body since (being drafted),” he said. “I’ve added muscle and explosiveness and quickness, I’ve continued to carve away, chip away, sharpen. So I think it’s starting to pay off at the age of 32.”
It started paying off for the 49ers last Sunday, Williams’ first game in a year after sitting out 2019 in a contract dispute. Teammate Nick Bosa was impressed.
“He made Chandler ( Jones) look like an average dude out there, which is almost impossible to do,” Bosa said, “and for him to do that first game back, that’s pretty unbelievable.”
Another week of mastering the complexities of that nutty-professor playbook can only make Williams’ game more effective. Pancakes, anyone?