Broncos' Williams a "completely different Jack"

 Former Booker T. Washington standout Jack Williams enthusiastically worked with young football campers recently in Virginia Beach with his buddy and former teammate Dre' Bly. In between urging kids to pump their arms and step quickly through a rope-ladder drill -- "DON'T step on my rope!" Williams repeatedly blurted with a grin -- he talked as enthusiastically about his upcoming second season with the Denver Broncos.

"Man, I feel like I just know so much more than I did last year," said Williams, a backup cornerback who played at Kent State. "If I look from last year to this year, it's just two completely different Jacks. I just feel like I didn’t even really know football last year.  "I'm going in now as a completely different player. Last year I really didn’t know what to expect; I was the new guy and everything was new to me. So now I know football better. That was my first priority, just to learn the game of football all over."

Williams said Chesapeake's Bly, the cornerback since-released by the Broncos and signed by the San Francisco 49ers, was a huge boost to him as Williams came to see regular action as Denver's nickel back.  "Dre' always helped me, as far as trying to recognize (receivers') routes and stuff," Williams said. "The spot I'm playing, the nickel, that's the hardest position to play in the secondary. I have to keep getting better and make plays; that's been my main focus in mini-camps.   "Dre' definitely has been missed already. Just his personality in the locker room, he's like my big brother. I tell him all the time, 'It ain't the same without you.' He was a locker-room guy, man. Everybody liked to be around him."

Williams, a fourth-round draft pick last year, also said he thought rookie head coach Josh McDaniels is "still trying find his way; he's never been a head coach. Coaches have that thing that they do; he doesn't have that thing yet. I like him, though. I think everybody's taken to his knowledge of football and what he's trying to bring to our team. He's trying to teach everybody football, that's what I like."

McDaniels is there, of course, because Denver imploded late last season, failed to make the playoffs and cleaned house, dumping coach Mike Shanahan, Bly and other veteran players, and trading disgruntled quarterback Jay Cutler. Williams said that was just another hard lesson for him in his early pro education.  "I'm learning it's a business, things happen, coaches get fired all the time and players get traded and bumped," he said. "It's different, coming from college, people don't get cut and stuff. You just try to focus on football and let everything else handle itself. Do what you can on the field, basically. You gotta take care of business."

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