'He's Back!' One Reason Sam Williams Has Cowboys 'Excited' In Oxnard

It has been a long time between successes for Dallas Cowboys EDGE Sam Williams, but daily now, in the warm Oxnard sun, he's getting after the offense.

Suffering an ACL injury early in training camp last season, Sam was lost for the year, just as he was looking to establish himself in the defensive line room.

But now he's healthy and we have already seen his competitiveness come out, pancaking Tyler Neville early in camp, to then be foaming at the mouth (and barking in excitement) to get pads on and go kill something, Williams is like a caged animal wanting to be set free.

And for head coach Brian Schottenheimer, one thing has him really excited about having Sam back on the field.

“He's doing great,” Schottenheimer said. “He’s competitive, you just see him getting comfortable. He's wearing the brace, he's doing different things. But I saw a pass rush the other day in the padded practice where he came off an edge, and you saw the explosiveness.

"That's kind of what happens with guys coming back. There's a play or two that they speak to like, oh, okay, I'm back. I don't know if that was that moment for Sam, but I did notice the twitch and the things that you're used to seeing from Sam Williams.

"That got me excited.”

Part of a defensive line for Matt Eberflus that has made life hard for Dak Prescott and the offense routinely in Oxnard, Williams' energy and willingness to lay it all on the line in camp - oh, yes, and that "twitch'' - is a sight to behold.

Set to be a key cog for the defense as he enters the final year of his rookie contract, it appears Sam wants to take quarterbacks' souls for fun in 2025, and when we factor in that the defensive line has been wreaking havoc without Micah Parsons, that makes what this group could become when No. 11 returns tantalizing.

And who knows, maybe 2025 will be when Sam finally puts everything together.