Damarion
Williams.
Damarion
Williams.
Houston· 5'10"· 182 lb
"A junior college interception leader turned three-year Houston nickel starter, tough and instinctive enough to play now, small enough that one lost season could end the chance."Pre-draft read
Williams is a compact 5-10, 180-pound slot corner who plays with far more force than his frame suggests. He lives in the nickel, triggers downhill on screens and quick game, and is a willing tackler in the run fit, which is how a corner finished a season with 63 stops.
In coverage he is a route reader rather than a pure athlete. He anticipates the stems he has seen on tape, jumps in-breaking throws and plays the ball at the catch point, producing 21 pass breakups in three seasons at Houston. He is best with traffic around him; on an island against a long outside receiver the height becomes the problem. The signature is the ball production he carried over from junior college, where he led the country with seven interceptions.
A nickel-heavy defense that plays match zone and asks its slot defender to trigger on run support, blitz off the edge and read route concepts rather than run with vertical receivers.
Year 1: fourth corner and special teams contributor with 200 defensive snaps. Ceiling: a full-time starting nickel in a match-zone defense.
A press-man defense that expects its corners to travel and lock down boundary receivers, where his length and long speed would be exposed every week.
His special teams value is what buys him time; without it the size flag gives him almost no roster margin.
Damarion Williams | Junior Houston Highlights
Houston cutup of his nickel coverage, breakups and run support.
Damarion Williams highlights | Houston Cougars
College reel built around his ball production and downhill tackling.
2022 NFL Draft: Damarion Williams | Baltimore Ravens
Pre-draft profile of his slot fit, instincts and size concerns.
Williams took the long road. He spent two seasons at Highland Community College in Kansas, where he led all junior college players nationally with seven interceptions in 2018, then signed with Houston in January 2019 and started almost immediately. Over three seasons with the Cougars he appeared in 34 games with 33 starts and finished with 163 tackles, 11.0 for loss, 21 passes defensed, three interceptions with one returned for a score, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery.
His senior year was the best of them: 14 games, 63 tackles, 3.0 for loss, nine breakups and an interception on a defense that carried Houston to 12 wins. He played the nickel almost exclusively, which fit his instincts and his build, and was one of the surest tacklers in the secondary.
The evaluation was straightforward. Teams liked the toughness, the ball skills and the football intelligence, and worried about size, arm length and whether he could ever play outside in the NFL. He was also 23 as a rookie, which made him a Day 3 nickel projection rather than a starter-grade corner. Baltimore, a defense that had rotated slot bodies for years, took him at 141 as the sixth of its six fourth-round picks.
- 01
Ball production
21 pass breakups and three interceptions in three Houston seasons, on top of leading all junior college players nationally with seven picks in 2018.
- 02
Run support
a genuinely willing tackler from the slot who fills downhill against screens and perimeter runs, with 163 career tackles and 11.0 for loss.
- 03
Anticipation
reads route combinations and drives on in-breaking throws early, which is what lets him play faster than his testing numbers suggest.
- 04
Slot experience
three seasons and 33 starts of nickel work against tempo offenses in the American, so the position is not a projection for him.
- 05
Competitive temperament
plays with an edge in press and at the catch point, and does not concede space to bigger receivers in the short area.
- 01
Size and length
at 5-10 and 180 pounds with short arms, he can be boxed out at the catch point by bigger slot receivers and tight ends in the red zone.
- 02
Outside projection
almost no boundary experience, which leaves him scheme-dependent and off the field in any package that does not use a nickel.
- 03
Long speed
not a burner, and a vertical slot receiver who gets him turned can create separation down the seam without a safety to help.
- 04
Age and runway
23 as a rookie after two junior college seasons, giving him less developmental margin than most fourth-round defensive backs.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- —s
- Vertical
- 34.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 118inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- 17repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Houston | 12 | 73 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 1 |
| 2020 | Houston | 8 | 27 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 |
| 2021 | Houston | 14 | 63 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 0 |
| Career | — | 34 | 163 | 0 | 3 | 21 | 1 |
The 2020 and 2021 seasons are taken directly from cfbstats (Houston team 288, player 1103661): eight games with 27 tackles, 2.0 for loss and seven breakups, then 14 games with 63 tackles, 3.0 for loss, nine breakups and an interception. cfbstats has no player page for him in 2019, so that line is the remainder required to reconcile with his official career totals of 34 games, 33 starts, 163 tackles, 11.0 for loss, 21 passes defensed, three interceptions, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery as published in his NFL team biography. Sacks are left unverified rather than zero-filled because cfbstats publishes no sack table for him. His two junior college seasons at Highland (2017-2018) are excluded. The three seasons sum exactly to the career totals.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
A rotational Day 3 corner who contributes on special teams and in sub packages without locking down a starting job.
The ceiling: an undersized, instinctive nickel who becomes a long-term starter in a match-zone defense.
The downside: a small defensive back whose value stays entirely on special teams and who bounces between practice squads.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
He played right away as a rookie, appearing in 14 regular-season games mostly on special teams and in sub packages, taking 226 defensive snaps and 134 on teams while recording 24 combined tackles and two passes defensed. That turned out to be the high point. He went on injured reserve at the end of August 2023 and was activated only in December, playing one game all season before landing back on injured reserve in January. Baltimore waived him in August 2024, brought him back to the practice squad in October and released him a week later.
Since then he has bounced: Seattle's practice squad in October 2024 and a futures deal in January 2025, waived that August, Tampa Bay's practice squad that September and a futures contract in January 2026, released at the end of August 2026 and placed on injured reserve the next day. He has 15 career games and no starts. The scouting report held up exactly as written: the instincts and toughness were real, but a sub-180-pound slot-only corner has no margin, and two lost seasons to injury closed the window before he could establish himself.