Sam Williams revealed he almost missed his draft call from the Cowboys

Ole Miss defensive end Sam Williams had good reason to think he was getting drafted by the Cowboys. In an interview with Blogging the Boys from after he was drafted, the defender revealed that he had met Jerry Jones multiple times and had talks with him about both football and life. Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn also attended Williams’ Pro Day in Oxford, Mississippi, and did some reps with the young gun. Plus, he had an official invite to The Star ahead of the draft.

Despite Williams’ past off-field issues with battery charges, it was clear that this team liked him as a person and as a player. Even though the Ole Miss product knew how much the Dallas front office wanted him on the team, he told Blogging the Boys that he was still extremely nervous on draft night.

The 23-year-old shared that he was worried when Round 2 began. He said that another team who had an interest in him, who he, unfortunately, didn’t name, was set to pick before the Cowboys. That unknown team ended up trading their pick. After Williams saw that trade, he thankfully realized that Dallas was set to pick very soon. That gave him some relief.

“Ya, I’m going to get drafted by Dallas. I know it,” Williams said to himself on Day 2 of the draft. The prospect was at his Ole Miss defensive line coach’s house for the draft. Apparently, his coach lived in an area where cell phone service was pretty bad. So much so, that he almost missed one of the most important phone calls of his life.

Sam Williams revealed that Cowboys DC Dan Quinn had to text him to pick up his phone during the 2022 NFL Draft

Probably not the best idea to hang out at someone’s house who has poor service when you’re expecting a pretty important phone call. Williams said he received a text from Quinn telling him to pick up his phone. He responded to the coach by saying that he didn’t receive a call.

Thankfully, moments later, the phone rang. The Ole Miss product said he feels lucky to be on a team that sees him as more than a football player. He thinks that Jones and his group view him as a dad and family man, too.

The front office isn’t the only part of the Cowboys organization Williams is excited about either. When talking about guys like DeMarcus Lawrence and Micah Parsons, the draftee said he looks forward to working with great players and learning from them:

"“I want to be a student. I want to learn from those guys. I want to learn the habits. I want to learn the culture. You can never learn too much. I am here to do whatever the team needs. If it’s a special teams guy… shoot they could put me at wide receiver if they need one. I want to be a student of the game.”"

Williams is pretty lucky to be learning from some of the best in the game. But, apparently, he won’t be “Sam” to his teammates and Cowboys fans. At the end of the above interview, he told the BTB crew that he wanted to start going by “De.” Odd time to change your name? De is the first part of Sam’s middle name which is “Degarrick.” We will see if that sticks or not.