To be fair, Williams’ struggles have not been entirely his own fault. A neck injury in camp during his first year with the team caused him to miss 7 games. In the 9 games he did play that year, he was actually not half-bad, intercepting 2 passes and notching 42 tackles.

But things only went downhill for Williams after that flash of effectiveness to close out 2008. By 2010 he had become perhaps the worst member of a defensive backfield riddled with bad players. His year came to an abrupt end when, in the legendary TCF game against the Bears, he suffered a concussion (not related to the rock-hard turf). Sadly, his most memorable moments in 2010 all involved him taking bad angles on ball carriers and generally not looking like he knew where he was supposed to be much of the time.

We all assume Williams’ disappointing Vikings career will end with him being cut. This assumption is based not only the reality of the cap situation, but on the fact that no one in the organization, to my knowledge, has in any way indicated an interest in keeping him. Leslie Frazier has talked about bringing back the underperforming Bernard Berrian and the aging Pat Williams, but Madieu Williams? Even the ever-positive Frazier is not touching that one.

So, when the Vikings do cut Williams, what are they going to do about a replacement? Going into the season with a safety tandem of Jamarca Sanford and Husain Abdullah doesn’t sound that appealing despite each man’s obvious enthusiasm. Ideally, those two guys and possibly Tyrell Johnson would duke it out for one spot, and a veteran with at least a little history of success in the league would hold down the other.
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