Leonard Williams - Defensive Lineman, seahawks Event: Press Conference | Date: 2026-09-16 | Full transcript (primary source).
Leonard Williams addressed the media during a press conference on September 16, 2026, following the Seattle Seahawks' recent game. The discussion focused on the team's defensive performance and the resilience shown despite facing challenges during the match.
Transcript
Williams: Hello, what's up? Good. How are y'all?
Williams: Now that you've had a chance to look at the film and kind of evaluate what stands out most from the overall defensive effort and execution last week from our defense just a Ben don't break type of mentality throughout the whole team. I would say I actually talked about it a lot amongst my friends and family about how rare that is, you know, I've been in the league for 12 years. You start to see things not go our way like our quarterback go down in the first drive and you know us being down most of the game. You usually start to see guys pointing fingers blaming certain guys blaming certain sides of the ball finding pretty much reasons and excuses why we should lose and I don't think I've seen a single person like I look every person in the eyes throughout that game and at halftime and not a single person thought we were going to lose that game.
Williams: Now there's some people that look at that and say you were the best defense in the league last year. It should have been even more obvious that you were dominant. Why is Ben, but don't break still the good philosophy for week ones?
Williams: I think it's just a great philosophy to have throughout the league throughout the season in general because you see a lot of these games oftentimes they come down to the last two minutes. I feel like regardless of what's happening throughout the course of a game, you know teams can be up by a large margin or whatever. It could be a battle throughout the game but oftentimes it comes down to those last two minutes.
Williams: What is you mentioned when Sam diver and you had to go in? And then obviously do you played well the rest of the way and all that what is kind of the team's confidence level it drew and all that with him starting this week?
Williams: I mean even outside of our mentality as a team of the bend on break and just kind of supporting the next guy up I think we all have faith in drew because I think we believe that he's the best, you know, second string quarterback in the league. You know, I feel like since I've been here before he went to the Giants he stepped up big time. You know, I remember that Eagles game a few years back where he stepped up and won us the game and you know he's done it and shown it multiple times now. So I think that has just instilled a lot of trust in his teammates and in his team.
Williams: How much when you're scouting for your next opponent are you focusing on the players you're gonna go against versus the schemes and plays that they call?
Williams: Really both, um, you know, the scheme does seem familiar you know, we see a lot of familiarities with the Rams and you know the scheme that they run and but there's obviously the personnel things that play a big part in it too. They like to go to certain guys. Their running back that they just drafted is you know, he's really talented and he's very athletic and you know, if you use both there's certain like downs and distances where you're more focused on. Okay. I know I'm gonna go against this guy I got to beat him in a one-on-one versus like I'm trying to detect what play they're gonna run.
Williams: Oh yeah, I mean it's down a distance. It's a personnel. It's what type of you know is the tight end and tight to the core is he you know flexed out is the running back kind of in a child alignment or is he tight? Is he behind the quarterback or you know in front of the quarterback? There's honestly like so many different tails you have to like pretty much diagnose in a second sometimes like before I put my hand in the dirt. I'm seeing the down and distance I'm seeing what formation they're in. I'm seeing you know, all of those things. Even where they're at on the field can play a part, you know, sometimes teams do a certain thing when they're on the logo they do a certain thing when they're in the red zone black zone. So you really have to be dialed into all of it.
Williams: What do you notice about his demeanor when he's playing? I mean, there's clips out there where it seems like there's a little bit of swagger to him. What do you notice about his demeanor?
Williams: I think what you just said he has a little bit of swagger to him. He's confident. I think he's ready for the moment. You know when when it's time for him to be called up. There's there's no lag. There's no hesitation. He's ready for and it's cool to see because you know I can't imagine what it's like to be in that position as a backup quarterback where you may not see the field all season but at any moment you have to be ready to like go in there and operate and lead the offense and uh I think he does a great job of that not skipping the beat.
Williams: Your edge guys, it's like a really physical kind of violent group in terms of law Channel saw these guys like have you been around a group of guys that obviously they can watch fashion play that physical in the run game and are just that violent and what does that do for the defense when you have that collection?
Williams: I mean, it's definitely unique to this place to have edge guys like that and also have rotation. You know, it's not just one or two guys on the edge. I can do it it's like we have a rotation of guys on the edge that are doing it and you know allows me to be confident in what I'm doing when I know guys outside of me are doing their job guys next to me are doing their job and you know the physicality that they play with, you know, it definitely represents the style of football that we want to be and put on film as Seahawks.
Williams: You mentioned the familiarity the aspect that it looks like the Rams obviously Michael for coming from Sean McVay's staff but you also know a lot of the players that are playing for Arizona played him in a different scheme. Like what does that balancing act like for you? Especially when you only have the one game to go off of with Michael floors offense what it looks like with this collection of players?
Williams: Yeah, like you said, it's we only have one game tape to go off of so, you know, a lot of it is we're going off of who we already have played against against in Arizona. So we're looking at certain guys like me bride, you know, some of their playmakers and then also we're looking at, you know, some of the floor's offensive scheme and things like that. And so we're really watching tape of you know, both we're watching teams we're watching tape on last year's Cardinals and also last year's Rams. So we're trying to diagnose and put it all together.
Williams: You mentioned not being able to imagine what it's like to be through lock in that situation. So what's the most pressure-packed situation you can imagine being because it happened to you?
Williams: Wait, is there anything that like the pressure that when it's put on me?
Williams: Yeah, like like a last-minute late unexpectedly something like that. Can you think of a moment?
Williams: I mean, it's tough because he's such a individual position. I would say like he all eyes are on him as a offensive, you know quarterback, you know for me I'm like I'm trying to imagine putting myself in that situation and when is the most pressure put on me and I think it's like situations like two minute four minute when you know, the offense is driving down the field and they have to pass the ball. So it's like as a defensive line, we know, you know drive killers are sacks. So it's like if we get a sack in the situation in a two-minute drill and two-minute period we could really end the game or in the half. But at the same time there's four or five of us sometimes pass rushing so you're not paying attention to just one guy sometimes it really is a collective whereas like a position like a quarterback it say all pressures on him, you know, it's a little different.
Williams: You've talked about the path type sometimes you pick up something from somebody's pass set that you use in a pass rush plan. Because you play all over the line does it increase the amount of studying you have to do about what people's you know tells are?
Williams: Yeah, it increases the amount of study and I have to do with the playbook I have to learn what the inside guys are doing I have to learn what the outside guys are doing and then it also increases my study of the other team I have to pay attention to the guards and the tackles even the center sometimes so you know, luckily I've been in the league long enough I can find tendencies and things like that a little bit quicker. Sometimes it takes me, you know, maybe two or three games to watch and I pick up someone's tendencies versus, you know, when I was younger sometimes I'd probably have to watch, you know, 10 games on a guy before I can figure out his tendencies. So I think knowing what I'm looking for and and knowing how to study has definitely helped me.
Williams: Adjust to all the studying I have to do now having to know different positions. Does that ever get like weird or like confusing in the moment where you know, maybe they're going fast and you're playing different positions?
Williams: Honestly, I think it helps me. It helps me play faster I think because it helps me understand the overall defense instead of just my position and by doing that it's like I know if this guy's dropping I have to get to contain faster and like things like that there's like small little, you know details within the defense that I've learned better by knowing more positions.
Williams: There's been a lot of talk around the league this week about a lot of a lot of teams didn't play their veterans and that led to some miss tackles or some games around the league where there's a lot of miss tackles. You guys didn't really play and had very few miss tackles. You think you guys you think that really matter hope matters a whole lot that you know if you played in the preseason to not make miss tackles and stuff like that week one or did you guys just kind of?
Williams: I will say it makes a difference. I think we do a great job of here you know doing tackling drills and and working on like angles and all of those type of things. But at the same time you can't really you know simulate it in practice we're not taking guys to the ground and I think it does make a difference. You know like there was a few times where you know I even wrapped a guy up and kind of just let my feet go instead of like running through the tackle and I think there's like small details that like that that you you get more comfortable with and used to throughout a course of a season.
Williams: What kind of boost would it be to get Nicki Minori back this week?
Williams: I mean, I think it'd be huge. I mean, he's a Swiss Army knife. He's a you know, he's one of those guys. I always talk about even in practice he's doing individual snaps with every position group on defense. He's physical. He's long and you know, he can make he's a big playmaker for us.
