Kendall
Williamson.
Kendall
Williamson.
Stanford· 6'0"· 203 lb· 4.54s 40
"Fifty career games at Stanford, one interception, and a Pac-12 education in tackling: the kind of profile that gets you drafted last on Saturday and keeps you employed for four years anyway."Pre-draft read
Williamson plays downhill and he plays hard. He started as a corner before Stanford moved him to safety, so he is comfortable in man coverage on tight ends and slot receivers, and he takes reliable angles in run support. Eight tackles for loss and 211 career stops came from a defender who consistently arrives, wraps and finishes rather than one who hunts highlights.
The range is the problem. A 4.54 forty is fine for a box safety and short for a single-high one, and he does not have the recovery burst to make up ground when a route wins over the top. His eyes in zone are inconsistent too, which is how a five-year starter finishes with one career interception and 14 pass breakups.
Two-high defense that keeps him in the box or over the slot and never asks him to play deep middle alone
Year 1: special teams contributor; ceiling: sub-package box safety and fourth defensive back
Single-high system that requires a free safety to cover half the field
Chicago, Buffalo and the Chargers have all used him purely as a special teams body.
He was there the whole time. Williamson played 10 games as a freshman in 2018, then never left the field: 47 tackles in 2019, 32 in the six-game 2020 season, a career-best 66 with 3.5 tackles for loss, a sack and five breakups in 2021, and 50 tackles with his only interception in 2022. Fifty games, 211 tackles, two forced fumbles, a Stanford defense that was often overmatched and a defender who kept showing up in the box score anyway.
Off the field he was a two-time Academic All-American, which mattered to teams evaluating a seventh-round defensive back who would need to learn multiple roles and special teams assignments quickly.
The testing landed exactly where the film did: a 7.07 Relative Athletic Score, a 36.5-inch vertical and 4.54 speed. Above average, not special. Every board had him seventh round or priority free agent, valued for experience, tackling and positional flexibility rather than range or ball skills. Chicago took him with the 258th pick, one selection before Mr. Irrelevant.
- 01
Reliable tackler
Two hundred eleven career stops with consistently sound angles and finish in run support.
- 02
Positional versatility
Started at both cornerback and safety at Stanford, giving coaches multiple ways to use him.
- 03
Five years of starting experience
Fifty games against Pac-12 offenses, so nothing about NFL volume or complexity was new.
- 04
Football intelligence
A two-time Academic All-American who processes assignments and communicates cleanly.
- 05
Special teams profile
Size, effort and tackling that translate immediately to coverage units.
- 01
Limited range
A 4.54 forty and modest recovery burst mean he cannot cover the deep middle as a single-high safety.
- 02
Almost no ball production
One interception in 50 college games despite constant snaps on the back end.
- 03
Inconsistent zone eyes
Gets caught reading the quarterback and loses track of routes crossing behind him.
- 04
Average length and play strength
Thirty-two inch arms and 13 bench reps limit him against bigger tight ends at the catch point.
Relative Athletic Score (Kent Lee Platte) benchmarks combine/pro-day numbers against every measured prospect at the position since 1987. 10.00 is elite; 5.00 is average.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.54sp50
- Vertical
- 36.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 125inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- 13repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Stanford | 10 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 2019 | Stanford | 12 | 47 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| 2020 | Stanford | 6 | 32 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2021 | Stanford | 12 | 66 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 1 |
| 2022 | Stanford | 10 | 50 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| Career | — | 50 | 211 | 1 | 1 | 14 | 2 |
Season lines verified against cfbstats and Stanford official records. Interception totals are listed only for seasons with recorded interceptions; the 2020 season was shortened to six games.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Honors
- Two-time Academic All-American
- Five-year contributor with 50 games played at Stanford
Roster spot 52 or 53, four core units, no defensive role.
Backup safety who earns rotational defensive snaps on the strength of tackling and special teams value.
Cut every August, re-signed every September, never on the field.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Chicago waived Williamson on August 29, 2023 and signed him to the practice squad the following day. He signed a future contract in January 2024, was waived on August 27, and spent part of that season on the Buffalo practice squad before signing a future deal with the Los Angeles Chargers on January 13, 2025. He spent 2025 with the Chargers on special teams, re-signed on March 6, 2026, and opened the 2026 season on the active roster wearing number 40, recording a tackle in the Week 1 win over Kansas City.
Nobody has given him a defensive role, and he is still in the league. Chicago waived him on August 29, 2023 and re-signed him to the practice squad the next day. He signed a future contract in January 2024, got waived again on August 27, spent part of that season on Buffalo's practice squad, and signed a future deal with the Chargers on January 13, 2025.
Los Angeles is where it stabilized. He spent 2025 with the Chargers working almost entirely on special teams, re-signed on March 6, 2026, and opened this season on the active roster wearing number 40 with a tackle in the Week 1 win over Kansas City. That is four organizations-worth of transaction churn and no real defensive snaps, but it is also a fourth NFL season for a player picked 258th.
The pre-draft read holds up completely. The tackling and the football intelligence are real enough to keep a coverage-unit job. The lack of range is real enough that no defensive coordinator has ever put him on the field on third down.