2021 Rookie Class: An Early Look at Seth Williams, WR Auburn

Seth Williams

Bruce Matson Posted On January 27, 2021

The 2021 NFL Draft brings another talented wide receiver class. Dynasty managers are beginning to be spoiled since this will be the third-straight wide receiver class that’s stacked from top to bottom with NFL-ready talent.

Seth Williams is another wide receiver prospect ready to test his skills at the NFL level. He was productive against SEC competition. Williams has the size and athleticism to be a prototypical flanker for an NFL team.

Let’s take an early look at his player profile as we get ready for draft season.

AS A RECRUIT

Williams was a four-star recruit from Paul W Bryant High School located in Cottondale, Alabama. He was a multi-sport athlete and earned state medals in the long jump and high jump. He was also an all-state honoree in basketball.

Courtesy of 247Sports.

According to 247Sports.com, he was ranked the 35th-best wide receiver in his recruiting class and was granted a .9259 composite score. He received the opportunity to play in the Alabama-Mississippi All-Star Game. During the recruiting process, he received offer letters from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Ole Miss, Oregon along with many other schools before signing with Auburn.

COLLEGIATE CAREER

Courtesy of Sports Reference.

Williams started his collegiate career as a key piece to Auburn’s passing attacked. We saw his usage increase throughout the year. His best game came against Liberty where he caught five passes for 109 yards and one touchdown.

We saw a snowball effect on his production going into his sophomore season. He posted two 100-yards games with his most productive performance coming against Mississippi State in week four when he caught eight passes for 161 yards and two touchdowns. This was the time of his career when he started to produce multiple highlight-reel plays, making him one of the top wide receivers in the nation.

He capped off his career in 2020 by averaging 69.09 yards per game which led to him finish the year ranked seventh in the SEC in receiving yardage. He started the year strong by catching accumulating 112 yards and two touchdowns against Kentucky. Williams caught three or more passes in all of his games.

From an efficiency standpoint, Williams had a very solid career. He officially broke out during his sophomore season with a 30.77 percent market share of Auburn’s passing offense. He continued the trending into his junior season with high marks in both market share and dominator rating. Auburn’s low-volume passing offense makes it hard for Williams to rack up the counting stats. His ownership rates provide a clearer picture of how important he was to the offense.

ATHLETIC PROFILE

Image from ESPN.

Williams is a big-bodied wide receiver who ran a 4.53 coming out of high school. From watching the film, you can instantly tell he’s not a field-stretcher, but he has more than enough speed to get downfield. He tested with a 34-inch vertical jump which measures within the 32nd percentile among wide receiver prospects. His 6-foot-3-inch frame allows him to win jump-balls, but his low vertical suggests that he lacks acceleration. When you adjust everything for his size, you have a wide receiver prospect who is tough to cover in one-on-one situations.

These numbers are from three years ago. If he tested today, there would be a good chance that he would provide different results. Speed and short-area quickness are not how he wins on the field. Williams likes to win at the catch point with physicality. He’s an aggressive player with very strong hands.

STRENGTHS

Makes tough catches look routine.
Excels at tracking the ball while it’s in the air.
Physical at the catch point.
Strong hands.
Can make grabs overhead and away from his body.
Has excellent body control.
Knows how to maximize his leverages and use footwork to get a good release off the line of scrimmage.
Has a diverse route tree.
Size-adjusted athleticism for days.

WEAKNESSES

Will get redirected at the line of scrimmage.
Takes plays off when he’s not the intended target.
Does not have the elite speed to stretch the field.

DRAFT PROJECTION

Williams is projected to be a day-two pick in this year’s drafts. The odds of him falling past the top 100 are very slim. His ceiling is the top of the second round with his floor being somewhere between the middle and late parts of the third round.

The combine could have been very impactful for his draft stock. A good 40-yard dash time in front of a national stage would have increased his value. Nonetheless, his skill set is more than good enough to compete at the NFL level. He’s a young player who will catch the eye of scouts when they start grinding the tape.

DYNASTY VALUE

Unless he falls to a dream destination like the Kansas City Chiefs, he’s more than likely going to fall to the second round of rookie drafts. It’s a very deep wide receiver class that will push him down the rankings. This is the first year in a long while that we could see a quarterback get consistently drafted in the first-round of 1QB leagues. Kyle Pitts is another player who will push him down the board because we don’t typically see tight ends get drafted in the first round of rookie drafts.

We will see him land somewhere around the top 100 in startup ADP this summer. Since he’s a younger prospect who is in the early stages of his career, Williams’ dynasty value will be age-insulated during the first year of his career.

All he has to do is just showcase some of his talent during his rookie season for him to receive a bump in value. If he’s not productive by the end of his second season, then we should see a drop in his ADP and trade value.

Williams will be a tremendous value in rookie drafts this year. He’s a tremendous size-adjusted athlete with an age-20 breakout age and a solid highlight tape. Although he may not be a bulletproof prospect, he does have the intangibles to develop into a WR1 in the future.

Author
Recent Posts

Bruce Matson

Contributor at Dynasty League Football

I'm a financial counselor for a hospital in South Central Ohio. I graduated from Muskingum University with a bachelor's in business while minoring in Economics and Accounting. I won my first fantasy football title with Jake Plummer as my quarterback.