Exclusive interview with Fayetteville State CB Joshua Williams: HBCUs, Senior Bowl, J. Cole, and more

Switching from wide receiver to cornerback

JF: "Right, and when you started playing, you were primarily a wide receiver growing up, even into high school. It wasn’t until your senior year that you made the switch to cornerback. How did that move come about? Was it your decision or was it a coach’s? Who made that call?"

JW: "It was my coach's. I was going into my senior year and I wasn't really getting much traction, but they knew I had a lot of skill and potential so I moved to corner. Things kind of just took off from there going into spring ball and the camps during the summer. My senior year was pretty good, it was my first year at corner. I still played a few snaps at wide receiver during the year, but that's really when I started to love the game even more. When I moved to defense."

Joshua Williams on his time at Palmetto Prep

JF: "Right, and it's hard to argue it wasn't the correct move in hindsight. Perhaps because of your lack of experience at cornerback, you weren't highly recruited coming out of high school. You ended up spending a year at Palmetto Prep in South Carolina before attending Fayetteville State. What was that year like for you, and how do you think it prepared you for the years following that, at Fayetteville State and now entering the NFL?"

JW: "That year I just did a lot of growing, physically but especially mentally. I played free safety that year. Coming from corner at Jack Britt [High School] where they had me manned up most of the time, now, I'm a deep-field safety. A middle-of-the-field safety. It was a big difference for me. I had to learn a lot of defensive schematics and things like that. That was when I learned the most about defense: how it works, who's doing what, and when they're doing it. That was probably my biggest takeaway from prep school."