Mario Williams was an excellent player at NC State. A big, gifted defensive lineman who was among the best players in the league at his position.
But was he this good? A better athlete than Vince Young? A better prospect than Julius Peppers was? A talent not seen “in years?”
Wow. I guess that explains why he was the ACC Defensive Player of the Year, right? And why he led the All-ACC voting for defensive lineman, right? It makes sense that Williams, who shared the line with fellow studs John McCargo and Manny Lawson (as well as Stephen Tulloch and Marcus Hudson in the backfield), led NC State to the nation’s #1 defense, right?
If you followed those links above, you’ll see (as if you couldn’t guess) that was being a bit sarcastic. As good as Williams was in college, he wasn’t that good. He wasn’t as good as other guys in the ACC this year and he wasn’t nearly the player that Julius Peppers was at UNC. Super Mario may well have a fantastic NFL career, but teams would do well to look more closely at actual on-field performance than at measurements and times at the combine.


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