Cardinals rookie Chad Williams looks to learn from the ‘older guys’

The Cardinals have found a treasure trove of talent in the third round of the NFL Draft.

Since just 2013, they’ve added Tyrann Mathieu, John Brown and David Johnson, all in the third round.

The next guy who the Cardinals hope can be added to their list of third-round steals is Chad Williams.

The 6-foot-1 wide receiver out of Grambling State was a virtual unknown when the Cardinals selected him 98th overall, but then again so were Brown and Johnson.

Williams will try to earn a spot on a receiving corps that head coach Bruce Arians has raved about, saying that all 12 are “NFL quality.”

Williams is making a big leap, going from competing against SWAC defenses to learning an NFL playbook, trying to beat the best corners in the world.

With such a big transition, Williams looks to those who’ve done it before.

“When we do route timing on air you know pass hook-ups with the quarterbacks I just pay attention to the older guys in front of me,” Williams told Doug and Wolf Wednesday on 98.7 FM, Arizona’s Sports Station. “I try to mock their routes that they ran before me and try to make it look as similar as theirs.”

One of those older guys is a future Hall of Famer.

Williams gets to work beside and learn the ins and outs of being an NFL wide receiver from Larry Fitzgerald.

“I’ve learned a lot (from Fitzgerald),” Williams said. “I’ve learned how to be precise on everything you do, he’s a technician, 98 percent of the time, 99 percent, maybe 100 percent he’s not wrong.

“He knows what to do, he knows where the ball is going to be, he knows how to run that route to where he can’t be stopped.”

Williams explains how he was humbled about his route running abilities when he got to Arizona.

“I knew my routes were fairly good, I thought they were more than good until I got here,” Williams said. “I don’t think any other team in the league runs routes like we run routes. We have special routes that we run, everybody in the world can’t run these routes, so I knew that I was like ‘man, yeah this is different’, so I need more work with this.”