Since he was a rookie in 2021, Milton Williams has always been a solid complimentary piece along the Eagles’ defensive line, and he could have come back for his fourth season content to have another good year backing up the studs on the defensive line.
And that would have been fine.
He wanted more.
So he changed everything.
Williams changed his offseason routine after the 2023 season and went down to Plano, Texas, and trained with Pete Jenkins, a legendary figure in defensive line coaching. Jenkins, now 83, spent the 2007 through 2009 seasons with the Eagles and although he’s retired now from coaching full-time, he does work with individuals during the offseason, and Williams thought Jenkins could help him get to the next level.
“It was great, we got a lot of work in,” Williams said. “It was hard. He works you. Some of the guys showed up, then didn’t even show up the next day. They were like, ‘Nah, I’m dead.’ I was there every day and put the work in.
“I was hoping I’d get the opportunity to play more this year, and I just had to get my body ready for it. We did run game stuff, we did pass game stuff, we did polishing. I felt like it really helped me.”
While Williams was down in Texas with Jenkins, he got to work with Henry Thomas, the long-time Vikings Pro Bowl interior lineman, whom Jenkins had coached at LSU in the 1980s. Thomas had 93 ½ sacks in his 14-year career, 4th-most in NFL history by an interior lineman.
Jenkins and Thomas are a couple heavy hitters in the world of defensive line teaching, and the experience was huge for Williams.
“Just tried to pick their brains every day,” Williams said. “Definitely learned some stuff I hadn’t seen before and tried to implement any little thing I could into my game.”
It was important to Williams that he didn’t stand still going into his fourth season. He was a solid, productive player his first three years, but he always wanted to do more, and his whole offseason was geared to taking a big step this year.
“Just trying to find anything I could do to take the next step to get better. Anything to improve my game whatsoever,” he said. “That’s conditioning, hand-eye coordination, pass rush moves, anything. Just getting a massage every week, just taking care of my body more, cryotherapy, dry needling, light bed (therapy), all this stuff, just trying to do any little thing I could to prepare me to take that next step.”
Is it paying off?
“Definitely, definitely,” Williams said. “I feel like really getting the opportunity to just showcase what I can do. Now everybody can see what I can do. Now everybody knows who I am. I just have to keep it going.”
Williams is the top 10 in Eagles history in sacks by an interior lineman, sixth in the NFL this year in sacks by an interior lineman, tied with Chris Jones. According to NextGen Stats, he’s generated pressure on 14.4 percent of his pass rushes, the highest rate in the league among interior linemen who’ve played at least 150 snaps.
He doesn’t get the notoriety that Jalen Carter gets and he wasn’t a 1st-round pick like Jordan Davis, but Williams is quietly having a breakthrough season.
His 5.0 sacks are 2nd-most on the team behind Josh Sweat’s 7.0. Only two NFC defensive tackles have more – Bryan Bresee of the Saints has 7 ½ and the Bucs’ Vita Vea has 6.0.
Pro Football Focus has Williams with an 88.3 pass rush grade, 3rd-highest of 161 interior linemen who’ve played at least 100 snaps this year and behind only two studs – the Chiefs’ Chris Jones and the Steelers’ Cameron Hayward, whom the Eagles will see Sunday.
“This league is all about winning your 1-on-1s and that dude does it,” Zack Baun said. “Whether it’s pass rush, run stuffing, we use him in a multitude of different ways, in specialty packages and stuff, any way we can get him on the field.
“We’ve got studs all over the place, but we’ve got to get him on the field and I think every time he comes in he does a fantastic job.”
Williams gets his share of 1-on-1s because Carter draws so many double teams, and he’s been making the most of those opportunities.
“To me, I feel like when I get those 1-on-1s they’re disrespecting my game, and I need to execute every time I get one,” he said. “Ya’all just like, ‘All right, we’re going to double someone else and that guy (blocking Williams) is going to be all right.’
“Nah. Like, you better slide (help) over to me, too, if you want to have a successful play. That’s how I look at it. It’s a challenge to me.”
Williams has played in 68 of a possible 69 games since the Eagles drafted him in the third round out of Louisiana Tech.
The Eagles have only drafted one interior lineman outside the first round who has more sacks than Williams, and that’s Andy Harmon, a 6th-round pick out of Kent State back in 1991. Harmon had 39 ½ sacks in six years with the Eagles.
“I don’t know why people put so much into where you get drafted,” Williams said. “It’s just what you do with the opportunity when you get it. First, second round, third round, whatever. For example, Moro (Ojomo), he was seventh round. And he’s coming in, putting in work, playing great.
“So I feel it really doesn’t matter where you get drafted. It’s just what you do with the opportunity and how you work every day.”
Along with Josh Sweat, Isaiah Rodgers and Baun, Williams is one of several key members of the Eagles’ top-ranked defense unsigned beyond this year.
With teams putting such a premium these days on pass rush from the interior, Williams is a lock to land a significant deal either from the Eagles or as a free agent with a new team.
He’s hopeful it will be here.
“I would love to stay in Philly,” Williams said. “I love it here. They’re the team that drafted me and believed in me, and it’s a winning culture out here.
“I try not to think about next year. Everybody’s always talking about, ‘Where you going to go?’ I try to just play football and let that take care of itself. I’m just trying to stack days, stack games, help this team win and trying to be productive when I get out there. And then we’ll just see what the future holds.
“Obviously, it’s on my mind, but just trying to play my best, and what’s gonna happen is gonna happen.”
