New Ravens safety Marcus Williams didn’t grow up watching a whole lot of sports. He was more into actually playing them.
Williams, 25, starred for the New Orleans Saints from 2017-2021 and recently signed a five-year, $70 million deal with the Ravens to patrol the back end. The 6-foot-1, 195-pounder posted 320 tackles and 15 interceptions during his time in the Big Easy, and yes, the game is always something that has come a little bit easy for him.
Williams’ first sport growing up in Southern California was basketball, but he got into tackle football at 8 years old. He started as a running back but was mostly receiver in high school — until a teammate’s injury forced Williams into the defensive backfield one game. He ended up with three interceptions that game.
So when Williams was playing defensive back for the first time, he had to be trying to imitate one of his favorite players as he learned on the fly, right? Well, maybe not.
“I just grew up playing sports. I grew up just playing everything and anything. I could never really watch it,” Williams said on Glenn Clark Radio March 23. “I was just an outside kid playing outside in the front yard and around the neighborhood. I really never just watched sports to watch it. I’ve never been, ‘I need to watch sports.’ I’d rather just go out there and play.”
Williams proved to be a quick study in the defensive backfield. He played three games at safety for Eleanor Roosevelt High in Eastvale, Calif., and earned scholarship offers to play the position at the next level. He chose to play at Utah, where he racked up 188 tackles and 11 interceptions from 2014-2016.
Williams credited longtime Utah safeties coach Morgan Scalley, who now doubles as the defensive coordinator for the Utes, for teaching him how to play safety.
“He pretty much taught me how to be a safety because I really didn’t play it,” Williams said. “Once he started teaching me, I started gaining a love for it more and then I was like, ‘I can do this.’ I always said I could do anything. There’s always going to be doubters and people saying you can’t, so that just pushed me a little more. We’re here now.”
As it turned out, Utah provided Williams with a mentor in Scalley and another person to look up to as well. While playing at Utah, Williams met Eric Weddle, who played for the Utes from 2003-2006 before being drafted by the San Diego Chargers in the second round of the 2007 NFL Draft.
Weddle enjoyed a 14-year NFL career, which he recently wrapped up with a Super Bowl ring with the Los Angeles Rams. Weddle earned six Pro Bowl nods, posted 1,179 tackles and picked off 29 tackles during a stellar career. Weddle played for the Ravens from 2016-2018, intercepting 10 passes and serving as one of the team’s leaders during that time.
Williams remembers what went through his mind when he met Weddle.
“I’m like, ‘Wow, that’s Eric Weddle.’ I never really watched pro sports, but I’m like, ‘OK, this guy’s in the NFL,'” Williams said. “I never really met any NFL guys until I got to college. So seeing that and going back and looking at him and seeing what he does on TV, I’m like, ‘Wow, that’s somebody who I want to be like.’
“I actually got in contact with him. I can’t remember how, but we got numbers. I talked to him and it’s like, ‘This guy is a professional in the way he works. He’s a family man.’ He also went to Utah, so it’s also like, ‘This is how I want to be. I want to be somebody who’s able to be a leader.’ He may not get all the recognition that he deserves, but you could see that he was one of the top safeties in the NFL for a long time.”
After playing at Utah, Williams was picked by New Orleans in the second round of the 2017 NFL Draft. He started 15 games as a rookie, but the season ended poorly; Williams was the safety who missed the tackle on Stefon Diggs during the “Minneapolis Miracle.” Still, Williams bounced back the following year, starting all 16 games and picking off two passes.
But Williams experienced heartbreak during the 2018 season. That October, his grandfather, Richard Glennon Boyd, died of lung cancer. He had already lost his cousin, Jessica Grubbs, and aunt, Dionne Wren, to breast cancer. In 2019, Williams partnered with the V Foundation as part of the NFL’s “My Cause, My Cleats” campaign. This past season, he partnered with the American Cancer Society.
Williams’ grandfather’s final words still serve as motivation.
“He basically taught me a whole lot about never giving up. Even when times are hard and you’re at your worst, you can fight through and be happy and just continue to be yourself,” Williams said. “His last words to me basically were, ‘Go out there and give it your all and never give up.’ He told me, ‘Go be the best safety in the NFL.’ That was pretty much the last words I heard from him. He said, ‘I love you.’ He passed away a week later. I still think about him all the time.”
Williams will continue his quest to be the game’s best safety in Baltimore. The Ravens brought in Williams to spark a takeaway-starved defense. The Ravens totaled nine interceptions as a team last year, and the leader in that category — Anthony Averett, with three — recently signed a one-year deal with the Las Vegas Raiders. The returns of star cornerbacks Marlon Humphrey and Marcus Peters, in addition to Williams’ signing, should help the defense generate more game-changing plays.
Though he admits he’s not a “rah-rah guy,” Williams believes he’ll be able to help out as a leader on the back end as well.
“[There are] leaders who are behind the scenes … who are directing people in the right way and speaking to them the way they want to be spoken to. I’m that type of leader,” Williams said. “I may not always yell, but I do speak my mind when it’s time. When we’re in the game or we’re in the film room, I’m going to speak up. I do speak up. I am a leader. I’ve always been a leader since I was young. It’s just going to continue to carry over.”
For more from Williams, watch the full interview here:
Photo Credit: Shawn Hubbard/Baltimore Ravens