Ringgold alum Williams signs with Chargers
Former Ringgold High School player Bucky Williams recently signed a free agent contract with the Los Angeles Chargers. He is believed to be the first former Tiger to ever sign with an NFL franchise.
Williams (6-3, 300) is coming off two standout seasons at Appalachian State, where he earned All-Sun Belt recognition in both 2022 and 2023.
In 2022, he was second team all-conference and appeared in 12 games, starting the final six at right guard after playing left guard and right tackle earlier in the year. He graded out at 84.0 over 647 snaps with a 89.9 run-blocking grade, the highest among all Sun Belt linemen. He also allowed just one sack in 336 pass-blocking snaps and was the No. 1 graded lineman in the conference.
Last fall, Williams was first team All-Sun Belt and team captain, starting in 14 games at right guard. He was the only conference starting lineman with regular season grades of over 76 in both run and pass blocking and gave up just two sacks in 470 pass-blocking snaps during the regular season.
He signed with Austin Peay out of high school, playing in 35 games and starting in 34 straight over the course of three seasons (2019-2021) after redshirting as a freshman. He was second team FCS All-American as a redshirt sophomore and a two-time All-Ohio Valley Conference pick, playing both left guard and left tackle.
While at Ringgold, he was AllRegion (6-AAA) as a junior and as a senior and was named preseason All-State by Recruit Georgia as a senior in 2017. After the season, Recruit Georgia named him to its All-State team, while he was honorable mention All-State in Class 3A by the Georgia Sports Writers Association.
“I feel good,” Williams told appstatesports.com following the Mountaineers’ Pro Day on March 23. “Obviously, there were numbers in my head that I wanted to hit, and I didn’t hit some of them, but overall, I felt I moved well, did drills well and, overall, had a really good day.”
Following the recent NFL Draft, Williams was listed among the top undrafted rookie free agents at each position by NFL.com’s Chad Reuter.
Of of the 26 interior offensive linemen listed, Williams was tabbed as sixth-best behind only Drake Nugent (Michigan), Kingsley Eguakun (Florida), Jalen Sundell (North Dakota State), Javion Cohen (Miami, Fla.) and Mike Edwards (Campbell).
The Chargers took another northwest Georgia player, North Murray and University of Georgia alum Ladd McConkey in the second round (pick No. 34 overall). McConkey is slated to be a slot receiver in the NFL.