Four practices into his second training camp, Kyle Williams finds himself buried on the New England Patriots’ wide receiver depth chart. With the top of the group seemingly set in stone, he has been fighting with fellow sophomore Efton Chism for the sixth spot on the depth chart.
Consequently, quality reps have been hard to come by. Knowing the need to stand out in a crowded room, the 23-year-old therefore has a simple plan: make the best of every opportunity, however small it might be.
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“You don’t know what is promised and what’s not,” Williams told reporters after Tuesday’s practice. “So, every day just coming up whether it’s in the film room, meetings, on the field pre-practice, after practice, just doing extra stuff to give myself the advantage to take forth to these opportunities.”
So far, those opportunities have been few and far between. On Tuesday, for example, Williams caught just one pass while working with the second team.
“It’s just control the controllables,” he said. “A lot of things are out of my control and when I get a chance to be able to control those things, I try to take the most of it. But I don’t really have expectations. I just show up every day just ready to take advantage of the opportunities given to me.”
During the offseason, Williams did just that — and the Patriots recognized it as well. This is why he was announced as one of the club’s offseason award winners by head coach Mike Vrabel.
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Unfortunately, the honor did not help him climb the depth chart. At the moment, Williams finds himself behind the likes of A.J. Brown, Romeo Doubs, DeMario Douglas, Kayshon Boutte and Mack Hollins in the pecking order. The aforementioned Efton Chism has also gotten some reps over him in recent days.
For the Patriots, the depth at receiver is a positive. For Williams, it is a problem, to a degree.
“Iron sharpens iron at the end of the day,” he explained. “When you have guys like A.J, Pop, Mack — from top down, these dudes can play. It just forces you to come out here and compete at a higher level and have no slack in your game.”
During the offseason, Williams focused on several areas in hopes of turning into a more complete player. Assisted by Hollins, the 2025 third-round draft pick tried to work on his physicality while still maintaining his speed. The ultimate goal was to become more versatile.
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During his rookie season, that versatility was lacking: Williams ran routes virtually exclusively from the X-receiver spot, where he served as a backup to Boutte. Playing that role, he finished his first year in the league with just 12 receptions that he took for 223 yards and three touchdowns.
In his eyes, getting those numbers up starts with getting the snap count up, which in turn starts with diversifying his skillset.
“The more you can do, the more opportunities are given,” Williams said. “For me, a big thing that I was trying to emphasize this year was expanding my role. I wanted to be able to move from the slot to the outside and be able to have those opportunities to expand and show my different traits.”
