Nohl
Williams.
Nohl
Williams.
California· 6'0"· 199 lb· 4.50s 40
"Nohl Williams is a highly productive, ball-hawking zone corner whose seven interceptions in 2024 propelled him into Day 2 despite a modest athletic profile that creates challenges in man coverage."Pre-draft read
Long-armed outside cornerback who lived on the boundary at Cal and plays a patient, off-and-read style. He is at his best with eyes on the quarterback, squatting on the route stem, then closing on the throw — a college-level ball hawk whose fourteen career interceptions came from timing and hands rather than raw twitch. Press reps show a firm jam and a willingness to reroute at the line.
He is not an explosive mover; the 4.50 speed is functional rather than scary, and he plays with pace instead of burst. In the run game he is a physical, willing edge setter who fills and tackles without hesitating. The signature is turnovers with the ball in the air: he finds it, tracks it and finishes.
Match-zone-based defense that plays Cover 3 and Cover 4 with corners keeping eyes on the quarterback and driving on the throw.
Year 1: third outside corner and core special-teams player with spot starts. Ceiling: a starting zone corner who produces four-plus takeaways a season on a defense that keeps him out of isolated man coverage.
A press-man defense that travels its corners with the opponent's best receiver every week; his lack of recovery speed turns those matchups into explosive plays instead of contested throws.
He needs a scheme that lets his eyes work. Ask him to turn and run without help and you take away the exact thing he was drafted for.
Nohl Williams | Cornerback | Full 2024 Cal Highlights | 2025 NFL Draft
Full 2024 season cutup showing the nation-leading seven-interception campaign.
Cal DB Nohl Williams | 2025 NFL Draft Tape
Draft-cycle evaluation reel focused on zone eyes, ball tracking and run support.
Nohl Williams 2024 Regular Season Highlights | Cal CB
Regular-season highlights including interception returns and fumble-return touchdowns.
Five-year college defender who took the long road — three seasons of starting reps at UNLV, then two at Cal after transferring — and left as one of the most productive ball-winners in the country. Williams is a zone-first, eyes-driven corner who wants to see the quarterback, read the concept and beat the receiver to the football.
The 2024 tape is why he went on Day 2. He led the nation with seven interceptions, the most by a Cal defender since 2006, added a defensive touchdown haul that included both pick-sixes and fumble returns, and earned first-team All-ACC on a defense that was not otherwise loaded. The flags were athletic. He tested at 4.50 with a 33.5-inch vertical, and quicker separators could work away from him from the top of the route down; when he guessed wrong there was little recovery burst to bail him out, and pure man reps against speed were the weak part of his profile.
Boards had him as a third-to-fourth round zone corner with special-teams value and elite ball production. Kansas City took him at 85 for a secondary that plays plenty of match zone and needed young bodies on the outside — a bet that instincts and takeaways matter more than a 40 time.
- 01
Ball production
fourteen career interceptions, seven of them in 2024 to lead the nation, all built on reading the concept and attacking the throw with real hands.
- 02
Zone eyes
he processes route combinations from off coverage, squats on the stem and triggers downhill the instant the quarterback commits.
- 03
Playmaking after the takeaway
four defensive touchdowns at Cal on interception and fumble returns show vision and finishing once the ball turns over.
- 04
Physical at the line
willing to jam and reroute in press, using length to disrupt release timing rather than opening and running immediately.
- 05
Run-game toughness
sets a firm edge on the perimeter, fills without hesitating and tackles reliably in space against both backs and receivers.
- 01
Athletic ceiling
a 4.50 forty and a 33.5-inch vertical put him below the outside-corner athletic bar; the burst simply is not there to erase mistakes.
- 02
Recovery speed
when he loses the top of a route he has no second gear to close, so vertical separators can win clean down the sideline.
- 03
Pure man coverage
he plays receivers rather than mirroring them, and quick separators off the line can create space before his eyes help him.
- 04
Boom-or-bust play style
the aggression that produces takeaways also produces guesses, and a miss in off coverage becomes an explosive completion.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.50sp50
- Vertical
- 33.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 120inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- 19repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | UNLV | 5 | 25 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 2021 | UNLV | 10 | 33 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| 2022 | UNLV | 11 | 39 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 0 |
| 2023 | California | 13 | 52 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 0 |
| 2024 | California | 13 | 51 | 0 | 7 | 8 | 0 |
| Career | — | 52 | 200 | 0 | 14 | 20 | 0 |
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Physical outside corner who fills a rotational starting role and contributes heavily on special teams.
Big, unspectacular athlete who became a starting zone corner on the strength of interceptions and instincts.
Toolsy college ball producer whose lack of recovery speed left him as a depth defender.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Kansas City used him exactly as the profile suggested: a rotational outside corner and heavy special-teams contributor as a rookie. Williams played all 17 games in 2025 with five starts, finishing with 48 combined tackles, seven passes defensed and a sack, and his snap share climbed late in a losing season as the Chiefs shuffled the perimeter. What did not show up was the trait that got him drafted — zero interceptions in year one, after fourteen in college.
That is the tension of the evaluation. He answered the toughness questions immediately, tackled well and was trusted in a scheme that asks corners to play with eyes in zone, but the takeaway production that made him a Day 2 pick has not survived contact with NFL quarterbacks who avoid the throws he ate in the ACC. There is a real path to a starting job here if the ball skills reappear against tighter windows. If they do not, the athletic profile leaves him as a third or fourth corner and a core special-teamer — a fine outcome at 85, just not the one Kansas City drafted.