The Vikings' biggest dark horse to watch at training camp

AtoZ Sports

Tyler Forness discusses how going into training camp a UDFA in DT Elijah Williams could make a big impact on the Minnesota Vikings' defense

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00:00Minnesota Vikings are about to enter training camp, and you need to keep an eye on this

00:03one guy who wasn't even an initial undrafted free agent.

00:11Minnesota Vikings have had a great string of success when it comes to undrafted free agency.

00:17Ivan Pace was an undrafted free agent. Everybody knows the story of Adam Thielen,

00:21and even dating back to John Randall, who wasn't drafted and ended up making the Pro Football

00:26Hall of Fame. They have a long lineage of finding diamonds in the rough, and they may have done so

00:32this year too. Yeah, they have nine guys guaranteed over $200,000, but it's a guy that they signed out

00:37of mini camp, rookie mini camp, that could end up being the huge difference maker for the Vikings

00:43in the long term, and that is defensive lineman Elijah Williams. He played at Morgan State,

00:48which is an HBCU at the FCS level, and he has a lot of production, over 42 games, according to

00:54the Morgan State Athletic Department website. 31 sacks and 52 tackles for loss across 42 games.

01:01Pretty impressive numbers. He was able to get pressure and do it consistently for the Bears.

01:06But here's part of the problem. He played at an HBCU, which is at the FCS level. It's not playing

01:11at an HBCU that is a problem. It's playing at the FCS level. When you play at the FCS level,

01:16you are playing a lower level of competition. If you dominate, there's probably a reason for it.

01:22But where the real intrigue here is, why didn't he get elevated to the FBS level? Because he had

01:29nine sacks in 2022, seven in 2023, and 11 in his senior year. He was consistent, and he was

01:35consistently doing a lot of good when it came to getting pressure in the backfield. So why didn't

01:41he elevate? And I think that's a very good question. One will probably learn with his play early on in

01:46training camp. But where this comes into play is how does that translate? How does production

01:51translate to the next level? We don't have a good enough answer there. Because sometimes production

01:56translates one to one, sometimes it doesn't translate at all. And when you're going from a

02:00much lower level than just the FBS, it makes it significantly harder for you to be able to take

02:06that leap to the National Football League. But here's where things get really interesting. He has a very

02:11similar path to Javon Hargrave. Now, Hargrave was a third round pick, and it's hard to say that

02:16they're one to one. But their athletic profiles are similar, even though Hargrave was about 30 to 40

02:22pounds heavier than Williams. Williams is about 6'3", 275. And when you're a pass rushing defensive

02:29tackle, that is very small. But the Vikings have not shied away from bringing in smaller players.

02:34Tyrion Ingram Dawkins is a 275 pound interior rusher, and he's 6'5". They drafted Makai Blackman and Jordan

02:40Addison, who both weighed less than 180 pounds. Ivan Pace is one of their better defensive starters.

02:47And guess what? He's under 5'11". They have never had a problem under Quasio Fomenta of targeting guys

02:53who are smaller. And what's really interesting is Hargrave made the jump from the HBCU ranks,

02:59and Williams could be the next guy. And bringing him in to pair with Hargrave to just learn and grow,

03:06and being able to have somebody who understands the process that he's going to have to go through

03:11to learn is a really interesting one. And why I'm keeping an eye on him is this. When you have

03:17a guy like Williams who was at the FCS level, and he wasn't even an initial undrafted free agent,

03:23the reason why you need to keep an eye on him is because he was signed after rookie minicamp.

03:27If you get signed after rookie minicamp, that is a huge signal to everybody else that, hey,

03:35this guy came in and he made a massive impact for us right away. Because he made a massive impact,

03:40guess what? There we go. He already has a leg up over all the other UDFAs who got signed before

03:46that happened. Make no mistake about it. Elijah Williams is a long shot, and he's going to have

03:50to do a lot to make the team. But he's somebody that's very worth keeping an eye on because there are

03:55a lot of things to link him to potentially making the team coming out of training camp.

04:00I'm Tyler Fornos, A to Z Sports, Skull Vikings.

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