Joe Williams Explains Why He Quit Football in 2016

Joe Williams has had his ups and downs in life and the game of football. Can he overcome his latest down in order to get picked in the 2017 NFL Draft.

Utah running back Joe Williams was one of the better RBs in college football in 2016. His 332-yards vs. UCLA and his 222 yards in the Foster Farms Bowl vs Indiana showed it. In nine games this season, he rushed for 1,407 yards, 10 TDs and a 6.7-yard average.

He has good vision, patience and can make guys miss but his best trait is his blazing speed. NFL scouts timed Williams at 4.35 after Utah’s Pro Day last spring. Yet as of right now, Williams is on the border of the seventh round and undrafted.

At 5’11, 205 pounds, he doesn’t have the size to be a bell-cow but his size doesn’t make him undraftable. He’s had some fumbling issues and his injury history is a full book. But fumbling is coachable and injuries happen in the NFL.

Williams has to explain why he quit his college team and came back a month later. No matter how talented a player is, desire and heart are his two most important ingredients. That’s what makes you work hard enough to do the job and hang in there through adversity.

Williams will be at the Scouting Combine next week and you know it’s going to come up. And he told USA Today that grief and guilt over his sister’s death 10 years ago is the reason. It got to the point where he simply couldn’t take it anymore.

He said, “People make it a big deal that I quit on the team. To me, it was necessary. “I was learning to come to grips with the fact that it wasn’t my fault. I’m 23 years old now, and I can’t blame myself for something that occurred 10 years ago, no matter how painful or traumatic it was.

“It would be bigger to honor her in a much more meaningful way.”

Williams claims he is in a better place mentally now, as evidenced by the way he played when he returned last year. And he wants the NFL to know that he’s even more focused on football now.

Blazing another 4.35 might help!