Mykel Williams, a junior pass rusher for Georgia, has been out since suffering an ankle injury during the Bulldogs’ Week 1 victory against Clemson. Head coach Kirby Smart was upbeat about Williams’ prospects of playing in No. 2 Georgia’s top-five matchup with No. 4 Alabama in Tuscaloosa on Saturday, though, following the team’s Week 4 bye.
In the days leading up to the game on Monday, Smart expressed optimism to reporters. “We’ll observe. He wasn’t very active last week. Though it’s encouraging that he was able to run on Friday and Saturday after receiving extensive rehabilitation, he hasn’t participated in practice.
With a 27–24 victory over Alabama in the league title game the previous year, Milroe stamped his team’s ticket to the College Football Playoffs. At that point in the season, Milroe’s average of 8.3 yards per attempt was his lowest, as he only completed 13 of his 23 tries.
The pressure Georgia’s defensive line was able to create was a major factor in Milroe’s low completion rate. In addition to sacking Milroe four times and applying pressure on 12 of his 29 dropbacks, the Dawgs also vitally restricted the mobile quarterback, making him hold the ball for an average of 3.70 seconds and scramble just twice.
Williams had a major role in that pass-rush strategy. Five of those pressures came from Walker in only seven pass rushes.
Play all three downs with 27 of your 48 snaps on the edge, just as he did against Kentucky. Walker’s run-defense grade against Kentucky was 55.9, according to PFF, and the Crimson Tide ran directly at him in both of his run-defense snaps against Alabama the previous season.
Williams is regarded as one among the top-10 prospects in the 2025 NFL Draft at 6-foot-5 and 265 pounds. Although his output has never quite lived up to his measurables—think of a player like Travon Walker at Georgia, who was selected first overall in the 2022 NFL Draft—his NFL size will be a huge advantage against an Alabama offensive line that includes Tyler Booker, a 6-foot-5, 325-pound left tackle, and Tyler Booker, a 6-foot-7, 369-pound right tackle.
Rather than bolting at the first hint of adversity, Milroe, a redshirt junior, is trying to play the position. Just five times has he scrambled for 51 yards, and 47 of those were against Western Kentucky in Week 1. That does not imply, however, that he is doing better when under duress in the pocket.
Milroe is under pressure on 31.6% of his dropbacks and yet has a time to throw of 3.03 seconds. Only 46.2% of his passes are being completed on such dropbacks. With Williams in the game, Georgia has a much greater chance of slowing Alabama’s run attack on early downs, something they sorely need to achieve.
