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Join Date: Sep 2006
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Williams sets hard-working example for line
The Cincinnati Post - Williams sets hard-working example for line
Quote:
Willie Anderson, the right tackle, has been exercising his 12-year, achy-breaky, Pro Bowl prerogative, sitting out these hazy days of training camp. Levi Jones, the left tackle, has been waiting for his knee to come around, and it could be a while. Rich Braham, the old center, has taken the country road home to West Virginia. Eric Steinbach, the former left guard, has defected to the city that Sam Wyche liked so much.
The time has come to appreciate Bobbie Williams, and depend on his gentle ever-presence.
The Bengals do. When the time came, last year, for the organization to decide which of its starting offensive linemen it could sign again, and in what order, Williams - the right guard with a voice for midnight radio and hands that can palm a halfback - was the first in the fold.
And now, as he enters his fourth season in Cincinnati, the club's widest smiler finds himself surrounded by men of similar size and considerably less experience. They, in turn, are surrounded by the unfailing grace of big No. 63.
Wednesday morning, Williams was, as usual, one of the last Bengals to make it into the shade of the locker room. The burly Texan never met an autograph seeker he couldn't melt with a gap-toothed grin as big as where he's from.
And when he had finished signing, and the perspiration was puddled up practically to his ample ankles, he stopped yet again, smiled yet again, and discussed the unusual situation he finds himself in this summer.
"You know what?" he said in his smooth-jazz tones, "I think the coaches did a good job of getting the young guys in and getting them reps. So I don't think there will be much of a problem in the transition. They've all got experience, whether it's Stacy (Andrews), (Andrew) Whitworth or (Eric) Ghiaciuc. I mean, we're pretty good."
And they'd better be. For years, the offensive line was the part of the Bengals that everyone took for granted. It played on, year after year, without weakness or letdown, enabling the likes of Corey Dillon, Rudi Johnson, Carson Palmer and even Jon Kitna to put up large numbers and pull in larger bucks.
To the club's credit, it looked ahead. In 2004, it drafted a 6-foot-7, 350-pound discus and hammer thrower from Ole Miss who had hardly played the game, whose best claim to football fame was having a younger brother taken in the first round. If Jones is not ready to start the season, Andrews could be in the lineup. He could be anyway.
"I think we bring in a player with great aptitude who has studied hard for three years, and now he's got a chance to show what he's done," said head coach Marvin Lewis. "I don't think we'll miss anything there."
"He really hit the playbook and he knows what's going on," added Williams. "Now, it's just unleash that raw talent. For a guy that size, his nimbleness, his quickness, is real impressive. I think he's absolutely ready, even by opening day.
"I've got to give it to the coaches, too. They went and found him. I'm glad he's on our team."
If Andrews starts at the guard that Williams doesn't (or it could be Whitworth), the Bengals will flank the seemingly undersized Ghiaciuc with about 700 pounds of Southern brawn. "Ghiaciuc is a 310-pound center," pointed out offensive line coach Paul Alexander. "He's one of the bigger centers in the league. But he looks tiny next to those guys."
Like the mountainous Whitworth, who as a rookie last year picked up invaluable experience spelling Jones when the latter came up limping, Ghiaciuc has benefited from injuries to the veteran formerly in front of him. To build on that, according to Lewis, the Bengals devoted much of their spring camps to acclimating him as the starting center.
Williams, too, has devoted a good bit of his energy, if not his time, to bringing along the younger linemen. The image that sticks comes from one of the spring minicamps.
The day was hot and done, but for the running. The big fellows lined up for theirs, the draft choices and free agents digging in to make an impression. And the guy leading the pack was the 345-pound starting right guard.
"You got to set an example," Williams said, smiling, as always, at the memory. "This is where they pick up what's going to be instilled in them. So whatever comes with that, as far as making calls, being there for the guys, get some extra lifting in, get some film in, taking that extra running - whatever I can do to try to lead."
It's perhaps what he does best, after making people feel good with his genial greetings. Williams is not the quickest blocker on the Bengals' line. He is not the crispest. He is not the wealthiest. He is not the most accomplished.
But those who are - or were - are not out there battling the sticky elements of training camp in Kentucky.
"Bobbie," observed Lewis, "is out there every single day. Bobbie Williams is a very hard worker, and he's somewhat of a vocal leader. The other guy (Anderson) is a little more quiet. Bobbie gets up and speaks the word and is a very physical guy. He gets a little better all the time."
And it's nice that he does that. For the Bengals, though, it will be nicer - imperative, in fact - for the guys around him to get the message and do it, too, just like the only veteran out there.
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Williams sets hard-working example for line
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