IRVING, Texas – Since recommitting to football in the middle of the Cowboys' 2010 training camp, former track star Teddy Williams is still looking for a permanent place on the roster.
First he was a corner. Then a receiver. Then defensive coordinator Rob Ryan gave him new marching orders this winter.
"I would do a few plays (last year at corner) when people went down to be a body, but I didn't know I was going to be back," Williams said. "Rob was telling me that he wanted me over there and I thought he was just joking.
"Then one day in the weight room, about February, he came in there and said, 'You're with me now.' I was like, 'What do you mean?' He said, 'I went to (head coach Jason) Garrett and said, 'I want this guy.'"
Once again, Williams just wants to fit in somewhere.
A star high school receiver in Texas who pursued an All-American track career at UT-San Antonio, Williams has shuffled between receiver and corner for the last two years while the Cowboys try to find a way to utilize his world-class speed. A hamstring injury suffered during an accidental collision with receivers coach Jimmy Robinson cost Williams a chance at making the active roster last summer, and he spent a second year on the practice squad playing offense.
The Cowboys again have moved him back to corner, where he's running backward, not forward. He says he feels more comfortable now than in 2010. With a stacked depth chart at the position, he'll have to really stand out this summer.
"I've learned a lot on both sides and learned a lot from the vets that are here and that are gone," said Williams, who was eligible to participate in the team's rookie minicamp. "Once you get there mentally, then you can bring the physical attributes to it.
"At the end of the day, you've got to be a competitor. With the techniques and stuff, Coach always says that will come. But if you go out there and you compete hard play in and play out, everything with fall into place."