SANTA CLARA – Trent Williams emerged from his rookie NFL season with a tip that altered his profession and life.
Transfer to Houston.
That 2011 recommendation got here from Adrian Peterson, a big-brother determine and former Oklahoma teammate.
Peterson feared Williams might be adversely affected by the NFL’s offseason lockout.
Williams, 37, is halfway by way of his sixteenth 12 months within the NFL. He’s heading for his fourth and maybe last playoff push since coming to the 49ers in 2020. Sunday will mark solely his second-ever sport in Houston, his offseason house.
Trent Williams #71 of the San Francisco 49ers celebrates after an time beyond regulation win in opposition to the Las Vegas Raiders at Allegiant Stadium on Jan. 01, 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Picture by Jeff Bottari/Getty Photos)
Again in 2011, Williams had 5 ½ months to coach earlier than reporting again to Washington for his second NFL season. Slightly than participate in eight player-run exercises in the course of the lockout, he arrange store in Houston, realizing his physique wanted to heal from the rookie-season rigors however that he couldn’t take a step again.
“Adrian talked me into coming to train with him after my rookie year,” Williams recalled. “He knew, first off, we had a lockout coming up in 2011. And he attributed the sophomore slump for a lot of people as to not knowing how to train correctly.”
A 12 months later, Peterson parlayed their 2012 coaching classes into one of many biggest comebacks in NFL historical past, rebounding from a knee harm to hurry for two,097 yards and win NFL MVP honors because the Minnesota Vikings operating again.
Williams has been a perennial Professional Bowler since 2012, apart from the 2019 season he missed whereas battling most cancers. Per week after wanting aghast in Tampa Bay on the 49ers’ injury-riddled plight, Williams had a unique view of issues this previous Sunday evening, all whereas basking within the glow of victory and a 5-2 report.
“I’m super proud of the team, because we could have given up, could’ve tucked our tails, and just looked forward to next year,” Williams stated after Sunday evening’s 20-10 house win over the Atlanta Falcons.
“But these guys keep fighting,” Williams added. “There’s a lot of resilience in this group.”
San Francisco 49ers’ Trent Williams (71) heads onto the sector earlier than their sport in opposition to the Dallas Cowboys at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Space Information Group)
Williams has a battle on his All-Professional fingers this Sunday when he encounters the Houston Texans (2-4) and defensive ends Danielle Hunter and Will Anderson.
Monday evening, Anderson lined up at proper defensive finish and bull-rushed his method in to a strip-sack fumble restoration for a landing within the Texans’ 27-19 loss in Seattle. Anderson was the 2023 NFL Defensive Rookie of the Yr and he has compiled 22 sacks with 48 quarterback hits in 35 video games.
It’s Hunter, nonetheless, who figures to line up extra in opposition to Williams, including one other chapter to their in depth historical past.
Williams and Hunter was offseason exercise companions, and that concerned one-on-one work till a matchup Hunter received throughout his dominant Minnesota Vikings tenure (2015-23).
“He literally used everything that I taught him against me,” Williams recalled. “I mean, it’s fun though. Danielle’s a really good friend of mine. We know each other really well. And so the matchups are always fun.”
Hunter has 4 sacks, as many as Anderson this season. Williams anticipates going through each on Sunday. The reunion with Hunter provides acquainted obstacles.
“They’re always really difficult for me, but it’s also a fun matchup,” Williams stated. “I know he plays like it’s chess. It’s not like he’s just using his speed and long arms and ability. No, he’s going to fundamentally find a way to break down and find your weak spot. And he’s going to have a move ready for it.”
With middle Jake Brendel lacking his first begin in 3 ½ seasons, and with all due respect to Matt Hennessy’s fill-in potential, Williams should anchor and lead the 49ers’ wobbly offensive line greater than ever. That, nonetheless, is all the time Williams’ assumed position. As proper deal with Colton McKivitz stated in Week 1: “We might be ‘Trent Williams and four other dudes’ but, you know, we’re doing alright.”
That offensive line is coming off its finest sport of the season, having paved the best way for NFC Participant of the Week Christian McCaffrey’s 201 scrimmage yards and two dashing touchdowns.
“Trent had a great game. He’s been playing really well,” coach Kyle Shanahan stated. “He’s got just as big if not a bigger challenge this week. Whether it’s Hunter or (Anderson), just whoever it is, even their backups, they rotate them, they all go hard. They play with a certain style and one of the best, if not tied for the best, D-lines we’ve seen.”
Williams cautioned at proclaiming himself again in peak form, that the NFL can humble you not simply weekly however play by play. “You’ve got to ask me after the year,” Williams stated.
Seven begins into this season, Williams is hesitant to say he has regained his 2021-23 All-Professional kind. The 49ers missed Williams the ultimate seven video games final season due to an ankle harm, and so they lurched to a 1-6 end of that 6-11 marketing campaign.
The harm bug has hit his teammates onerous this season.
“We’ve taken a lot of gut punches and a lot of blows that it would’ve been easy to fold, and I think that a lot of people would’ve understood,” Williams stated. “You lose not only two of your best players, but two of the best players to ever play the game, in Nick (Bosa) and Fred (Warner), and then not having Brock (Purdy) and just getting George (Kittle) back after not having him for five weeks, it’s been tough.”
Williams has performed solely as soon as earlier than in Houston, dropping the 2014 season opener there with Washington. Two years later, Williams and Peterson opened a Houston-based gymnasium, O Athletik.
That’s the place Williams retains in form within the offseason — apart from his Cabo San Lucas retreats — for the in-season grind he’s in now. He labored on the market final summer time throughout a training-camp holdout earlier than scoring a three-year, $82.7 million deal that runs by way of 2026.
Guard Spencer Burford has educated with Williams at his Houston gymnasium and described it as “high intensity. You get a good workout.” He additionally stated Williams and his household are recogined all through not simply Houston however “in Texas, for sure, and pretty much anywhere.”
Williams is a local of Longview, two hours east of Dallas and three 1/2 north of Houston. He was in Houston and eating at James Harden’s 13 when he closed a 2021 take care of the 49ers, after almost leaving for the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs in free company. It made him the NFL’s highest-paid offensive lineman, and final 12 months’s deal put him again atop the left-tackle market.
A few of that cash not too long ago went towards his new house, nonetheless in Houston, and just a few minutes from the 49ers’ staff resort this weekend.
