Nohl Williams film review; The Chiefs' newest CB screams "Spags/Merritt"
Looking at the film of the latest in a line of press-happy and intelligent corners Kansas City has drafted.
With the Chiefs’ 2025 draft now in the books, we have a ton of new film to review. My favorite part of the draft is examining new players to try and figure out where they win, where they need work, and how they can fit in with the Chiefs in their first season and beyond. Here are the film reviews we’ve already done for this year’s draft class:
Round 1: LT Josh Simmons (both pre-draft review and post-draft looking at the potential plan for him)
Round 4: WR Jalen Royals (I reviewed him right away by popular demand)
Round 3: Edge rusher Ashton Gillotte (whose film I loved)
Today, we’re looking at the Chiefs’ other 3rd round pick, cornerback Nohl Williams out of the University of California.
Williams is best-known (for those of us who don’t follow college football closely, or even at all) for having 7 interceptions last season, which is more than twice as many as any Chiefs’ defender had last season (rookie and part-time player Jaden Hicks led the team with 3). He’s also got the size (6’ or taller, weighing at least 200 pounds) that we’ve come to expect from corners drafted by the Chiefs.
There may have been some surprise that Veach went with a cornerback relatively early in the draft (given they just signed Kristian Fulton), but it shouldn’t be when you consider the reality of the roster. Both Jaylen Watson (who has been a solid starter) and Josh Williams (who has filled in well in spots) are free agents following the 2025 season. In addition, Trent McDuffie is due for a huge payday that the Chiefs will almost certainly provide given his level of play and importance to the defense.
As I wrote about when discussing Fulton’s film (see the above link), the Chiefs’ defense is by far at its best when they have three legitimately competent cornerbacks on the field. While of course this is true of any defense, Spags utilizes a ton of different disguises/etc, and is famous for his blitz packages. He’s able to unleash those things best when he has three above-average (ideally better, but you get the idea) cornerbacks who he trusts to execute any man or zone look, especially if they’re able to play at the line of scrimmage.
Last season, we saw what a difference it made having Watson healthy (as there really was no one else after McDuffie who Spags consistently trusted or who played consistently well). Guys whom they’ve been developing (Nazeeh Johnson, Nic Jones, Kamal Hadden) weren’t able to step into the role as he 3rd CB, and so they made an aggressive move to grab Fulton and shore up the spot. The presumptive rotation is now McDuffie/Fulton/Watson, with McDuffie (thank goodness) back to rotating into the slot on 3-CB sets.
All this is a long road to a short thought that getting a CB to develop who can hopefully take over as a boundary guy in 2026 is a good idea, considering the gap they’re about to have there.
So how does Williams fit in? Similar to what I’ve done in the past with CBs the Chiefs have drafted, let’s talk about where Williams wins (his strengths), where he’s got some flaws or unknowns, and how he fits overall with what the Chiefs do (as well as his potential role this upcoming season).
Where Williams Wins
Williams is, to over-use an expression, a VERY Spags/Merritt guy. I mean a few different things by that. The first is that he’s a physical, grabby player who is pressing at the line of scrimmage and maintaining contact throughout routes in a way that drives receivers nuts.
This is the sort of rep you’ll commonly see from Chiefs’ corners when they’re asked to press. Something that’s worth noting here that allows Williams to play confidently at the line of scrimmage is his quiet feet; He doesn’t buy into all the stutters and fakes the WR sells at the line, and just waits for him to actually move into the route. That sort of patience is common for Williams and helps him be consistent in landing contact when he’s jamming opponents. He also consistently shows the strength to disrupt the route and ability to maintain contact.
Williams is a pest to play against. He has a feisty demeanor and is aways willing to trade shoves with opposing WRs. He’s very good about keeping a hand on them (or more) throughout their route and a lot of his opponents wasted a lot of oxygen looking for refs to bail them out. Because he makes contact so early most of the time he’s able to get away with playing physical throughout the route. By doing so, he’s constantly disrupting the speed and timing of receivers on their routes and rarely getting flagged for it.