Garrett Williams optimistic about Cardinals’ defensive play despite 3-8 record

Despite the Arizona Cardinals’ 3-8 record, cornerback Garrett Williams says he is optimistic about the team turning it around and finishing the season strong.

“We’re close. We really are close and it’s just those few details that if we can just continue to harp on and those little things not just in the game, but throughout the week as it leads into the game, eventually things are going to turn and go in our favor,” Williams said on Arizona Sports’ Wolf & Luke on Wednesday.

“We just got to stay faithful in that and keep trusting all the work we are putting in.”

Williams suffered a setback to start his 2025 campaign when he sustained a knee injury during the Cardinals’ Week 2 game against the Carolina Panthers. The injury caused him to miss the next five games.

Since his return in Week 9 against the Dallas Cowboys, Williams has registered 14 total tackles, four passes defensed and an interception.

Williams stressed the importance of him continuing to improve and admitted that he feels like he hasn’t played his best football this season.

“There’s definitely more steps I can take to keep getting better. I feel like I haven’t played my best ball this season and that’s what I promise upfront is to be the best player I can be to the team to help us get more wins,” Williams said.

“I want to be out there every game and also when I’m out there I want to keep playing cleaner and cleaner and I feel like each game I’m improving step-by-step. It’s a process but I feel good about where I’m headed.”

Garrett Williams compliments defense’s ability to create turnovers

Despite the Cardinals losing eight of their past nine games, Williams said the defense has done a good job forcing turnovers and feels like they are headed in the right direction.

“I feel like as we keep doing that, eventually that’s gonna turn into wins,” Williams said. “It’s an important part of the game so I feel confident in that helping us build.”

Since his return, the Cardinals have forced 10 turnovers in four games, including four in Arizona’s 27-24 overtime loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars last week.

The one area Williams feels the defense needs to improve on is communication and stresses the importance of continuing to work on that.

“I feel like as a defense the only time that we usually start having bad drives is when we’re not communicating,” Williams said. “I feel like whenever we did that at a high level, everything is smooth so we got to just keep harping at that.”

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