{"id":105183,"date":"2021-03-29T13:50:20","date_gmt":"2021-03-29T17:50:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=105183"},"modified":"2021-03-29T13:51:09","modified_gmt":"2021-03-29T17:51:09","slug":"shawn-williams-signs-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2021\/03\/29\/shawn-williams-signs-contract\/","title":{"rendered":"Shawn Williams Signs Contract With Arizona Cardinals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Veteran safety Shawn Williams signed a new contract with the Arizona Cardinals. Williams spent the first eight seasons of his career with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2021\/03\/02\/cincinnati-bengals-free-agency-questions\/\" target=\"_self\">Cincinnati Bengals<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Cardinals?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Cardinals<\/a> are signing former <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Bengals?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Bengals<\/a> safety Shawn Williams to a one-year deal, per source.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TomPelissero\/status\/1376592238952787970?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 29, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Shawn Williams, Arizona Cardinals, Agree to Contract<\/h2>\n<p>After nearly a decade in Cincinnati, safety <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/W\/WillSh02.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Shawn Williams<\/a> receives his next opportunity. During his first eight seasons in Cincinnati, he grabbed 12 interceptions and 14 quarterback hits. Williams played a role on special teams in Cincinnati, playing 66% of the team\u2019s snaps with that unit last year. He was also a part of three playoff runs with the team from 2013 to 2015. Now, he&#8217;ll get a chance to chase success in his new role.<\/p>\n<p>Williams was a regular starter in Cincinnati from 2016 to the 2019 season. He appeared in 58 games, making starts in 57 of those opportunities. However, when the team signed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/B\/BellVo00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Vonn Bell<\/a> last offseason, it shrank Williams\u2019s role. He made appearances in 13 games during the 2020 season, playing in 8% of Cincinnati\u2019s defensive snaps. Williams served a one-game suspension after intentionally stepping on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/K\/KindSo00.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Solomon Kindley<\/a>\u2019s foot in a Week 13 loss to the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/nfl-teams2\/dolphins\/\" target=\"_self\">Miami Dolphins<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The safety played college football at the University of Georgia. While a Bulldog, he logged 30 starts in 54 career games, picking up 209 tackles, 11 pass breakups, four interceptions, and one sack. He was eventually selected in the third round of the 2013 NFL Draft by Cincinnati. He initially ranked third on the depth chart behind <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/I\/IlokGe00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">George Iloka<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/M\/MaysTa99.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Taylor Mays<\/a>, a pair of veterans.<\/p>\n<p>While in Cincinnati, Williams took opportunities to get involved in the community. He learned that 43% of students in his native Blakely, Georgia lacked access to laptops. \u201cIt\u2019s important that every child has fair access to information and technology,\u201d Williams said in a statement. \u201cSo I am thankful for all of those that helped with this event in any way.\u201d Williams donated $80,000 and raised another $20,000. The funds allowed for the purchase of Chromebooks for every student at Early County High School. Eventually, Williams was named the Week 7 NFL Players\u2019 Association Community MVP.<\/p>\n<p>Main photo:<br \/>\n<a id=\"Xv1_IabBTZtcwplw7D3bEg\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1288910720\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'Xv1_IabBTZtcwplw7D3bEg',sig:'17QbQDXI-jg8TJzfQ5LLPi0GaZnxJOshBSpDponvCXI=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1288910720',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Safety Shawn Williams is no longer a free agent after signing his latest contract. Williams spent 2020 with the Cincinnati Bengals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3734,"featured_media":105300,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[36,7],"tags":[7343,1608,246],"class_list":["post-105183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-news","category-bengals","tag-cincinnati-bengals-roster","tag-nfl-free-agency","tag-nfl-news"],"modified_by":"David Latham, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3734"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}