Healthy Williams ‘excited’ to be back
Defensive tackle missed most of 2015 with injury
Except for that stinging 26-20 Grey Cup loss to the Edmonton Eskimos, the 2015 season was like a dream come true for almost all of the Ottawa Redblacks. Not for Connor Williams. Back problems forced the 24-year-old defensive tackle from Kanata out of the lineup following the season-opening victory against the Montreal Alouettes and never let him back in it.
Surgery was considered, but eventually bypassed in favour of intense rehabilitation that has allowed the second player ever drafted by the Redblacks — second round in 2013, before the new CFL franchise in his hometown had a name and a year before its first contest — to go full-speed in training camp.
That’s good news for Williams, who in 2014 missed most of training camp after picking up a blood infection from the artificial-turf surface at Carleton University and then had his regular season curtailed by a concussion in an Oct. 11 game against the B.C. Lions.
“I feel great running out here,” he said following Tuesday’s practice at TD Place stadium. “I feel better than I have in recent years, for sure. I’m really excited to be back out here with the guys.”
Williams said his back woes began during training camp in 2015 and things went “to hell in a handbasket” in the opener at Montreal. One stint on the injured list led to another as the Redblacks went on the run that took them to the Grey Cup.
“I had made my mind up I was going to come back for (a specified) time, but it kept getting pushed back and eventually it was the season,” Williams said. “That was hard. I was very happy for the guys; they did very well. But it was hard being on the sideline and being on the outside looking in ... definitely difficult.
“But I’m super excited to be out here with the guys now, working with them every day, improving my craft. It’s wonderful.”
Zack Evans, who signed a new two-year contract and is expected to be the starter in front of Williams at defensive tackle, said watching his teammate endure that lengthy stint in injury-related purgatory was deflating and a reminder of the fleeting nature of pro-football.
“You know how hard that man works in the off-season, and to have it end like that for a whole season, it’s rough,” Evans said. “It makes you think about your career, it makes you think about it that any play can be your last play . ... You knock on wood and hope it doesn’t happen to you. You have to work (hard).”
Redblacks head coach Rick Campbell and general manager Marcel Desjardins both said Williams had looked good so far in training camp. Having another healthy Canadian available for regular duty on the defensive front might open up an opportunity to play with the national/international player ratio on the 46-man active roster for the regular season.
Williams already has his eye on the regular-season opener, a rematch with the Eskimos in the Alberta capital on the anniversary of his last CFL game.
“Every day I come out here, I’m proving to myself that I’m ready to go,” said the nephew of former Ottawa Rough Rider Shane Ireland. “The coaches know I’m ready to go.”