Source Updates Status of Packers Starting Safety Evan Williams

Williams is fourth on the defense with 829 snaps. After ceding some playing time to Bullard at midseason, Williams had played all but one snap the previous three games.

Last week, defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley said Williams’ biggest jump from Year 1 to Year 2 was his tackling. As a rookie, Williams’ missed-tackle rate was 14.3 percent, according to Pro Football Focus. He had cut that to 12.5 percent this season, with a bad game at Detroit (four misses) skewing the numbers a bit.

“Part of his issue last year is his head would go down, he’d duck his head and he’d put himself in some difficult situations to tackle, and then truthfully, he’d put himself into some dangerous situations,” Hafley said.

“Us as coaches, it’s one thing to miss a tackle; it’s another thing to put your head down and put yourself in jeopardy to hurt yourself. So, we take that really serious, so we’ve been working really hard with him, and then I think he’s kind of really focused on that and brought attention to keeping his head up, wrapping people up.”

Williams and McKinney have formed one of the top safety tandems in the NFL. The Bears raved about them before their matchup a couple weeks ago. The growth of Williams alongside the All-Pro McKinney has been critical.

“I just think his instincts and his ability to get to the ball and find the ball and insert in different places have allowed him to play really well,” defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley said.

“I think right now, too, you talk about our safeties playing the disguises, one guy who kind of goes unnoticed in that game again is X. The little things that he’s doing right now and allowing us to do on defense with the way he’s moving around, communicating, disguising, even in the run game which not everybody sees, it opens up so much for us to do on defense. So, to have those two back there right now, it’s a lot of fun.”

The Packers will have to regroup in a hurry following a horrendous day in Denver. They tumbled from the second seed to the seventh seed by losing to the Broncos, but a win at Chicago would get them right back on top of the division.

“We say pressure is a privilege,” Williams said last week. “To be able to be in those scenarios where everything is on your back is definitely a privilege for us. Look for those opportunities to show the type of defense we are. All good defenses have to show up in the face of adversity. We welcome those challenges and welcome those scenarios to close it out.”