“Chiefs Free Agent Focus:
ILB Avery Williamson”
by Paul Pulley
We’re now going to turn our attention to another weakness on the Defense of the Kansas City Chiefs: Inside Linebacker (ILB). I’m going to continue to focus mostly on players from the 2014 draft class. These are young men coming off their rookie contracts and hitting free agency for the first time.
Let’s do a quick review of off-season moves, both real and imaginary. Brett Veach, General Manager (GM) of the Chiefs has:
- released Darrelle Revis,
- decided to allow the contract of long time ILB Derrick Johnson to void.
Both of these moves can be considered “Salary Cap Casualties”.
In a move I consider both good and bad, GM Veach:
- worked a trade with Washington for QB Alex Smith.
- In return, the Chiefs receive an excellent young CB in Kendall Fuller and,
- a 3rd round draft pick in the 2018 NFL Draft.
This trade was good in that it gives the Chiefs much needed cap space, an extra draft pick, plus a much-needed improvement to the secondary (bad… in that it deprives me of playing armchair GM… I had a couple ideas for CB).
Imaginary GM, Paul — that’s me — has,
- cut Tamba Hali
- cut Allen Bailey.
- plus, I rescinded the 5th year option of Dee Ford (because in my imaginary scenario he passed his physical).
These moves create over $22.3 million in additional cap space.
Then, I signed DE Muhammed Wilkerson to a 4-Y/$48M deal and OLB Trent Murphy to a 4-Y/$33.5M contract.
Now, Onto Finding an Inside Linebacker
Looking at a limited number of ILBs, I was surprised at the number of mid-round draft picks that end up being very productive, although the 1st round picks tend to be the best all-around players. I will say that I look primarily at stats and I am not looking for a one year stop-gap type of player, which brought me to Avery Williamson, who was drafted by the Tennessee Titans.
Williamson measured 6-1 and weighed 246 at the combine. He ran a 4.66 40-yards dash and the 20-yard short shuttle in an ILB best — 4.07 seconds. Some comments from his profile state that he has “outstanding personal and football character” and that he is “smart, understands the game and can make all the calls and on-field adjustments.”
Comparing Williamson’s Contemporaries
This is a statistical comparison to some LBs, mostly from the 2014 draft class. These stats are from their first four years in the NFL. I did not make any type of adjustment for time missed due to injury or any other reason.
Stats are from nfl.com
Kirksey, Hitchens and Kennard all play OLB in a base 4-3 defense, but would be better suited on the inside in a base 3-4 in my opinion.
I added Kuechly (2012 draft) for a stat comparison, as he is one of the highest paid ILB’s in the NFL
Trevathan (also from the 2012 draft), who was a teammate of Williamson at Kentucky, was included since he was one of the few ILBs I found that signed with a different team after completing his rookie contract, a 4-Y/$28M deal with the Chicago Bears.
Both Shazier, for the Pittsburgh Steelers and Mosley, for the Baltimore Ravens, had their 5th year option exercised by their respective teams. As most know, Shazier suffered what is quite possibly a career ending injury late last season. Their 5th year option has a value of $8,718,000.
The Cleveland Browns rewarded Christian Kirksey with a 4-Y/$38m extension last year.
Can The Chiefs Afford Avery Williamson?
I don’t believe the Titans will be eager to let Williamson go. The Chiefs, as well as other teams (including the Steelers) will be looking for a quality ILB, which could conceivably drive his price up. If we really want to improve our defense in 2018, I believe ILB is a position we just cannot afford to go cheap.
I would propose an offer of 5 years for $45M with a $12.5M signing bonus and $28M guaranteed.
Without trying to complicate things by adding incentives or bonuses other than the signing bonus a contract could look like this:
This would give us a cap hit of $5M for 2018 and the contract structure would allow us to part ways after 3 years.
One other small bit of information about Avery Williamson is that he won’t turn 26 years old until March 9, 2018. He would just be 30 at the completion of this 5-year contract.
The Chiefs could do a lot worse than having Reggie Ragland and Avery Williamson as the starting ILBs. With Ukeme Eligwe and a 2018 draft selection as our reserves, we might need to add one more player before camp.
So, what do you think? Would you like to see the Chiefs pursue Avery Williamson?
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