After hoisting the Lombardi Trophy with the Eagles just last season, Milton Williams didn’t exactly have “back-to-back Super Bowl runs” penciled into his calendar when he signed a massive four-year, $104 million deal with the New England Patriots. Especially not after joining a team that had just wrapped a four-win season. But here we are - one year later, and Williams is heading to the big game again, this time as a key cog in a Patriots defense that’s helped engineer one of the most dramatic turnarounds in recent memory.
Williams didn’t expect it to happen this fast. But he’s not surprised by how they got here, either.
The formula? Consistency, discipline, and a front line that’s been dictating terms all postseason long.
“Keep doing what we’ve been doing all year, all playoffs. It don’t change,” Williams said when asked about his message to his younger, less experienced teammates.
“We don’t care what they run, who they got. It don’t matter.
Put the ball down. We got to put our hands and eyes and feet where they supposed to be - snap in, snap out.
Being consistent.”
That mindset - staying grounded, focused on the fundamentals - is what separates the moment from the magnitude. And Williams knows how easy it is to get caught up in the spectacle of the Super Bowl and lose sight of the job at hand.
“That’s where people get in trouble,” he added. “You go out there, you’re on a big stage, you want to make plays, and then you hopping out your gap, trying to do something you’re not supposed to be doing, and now you’re hurting the team.
Now, if one guy ain’t doing his job out of all 11, then they going to score. So, we all got to be on the same page, make the play when it come to you.”
Williams speaks from experience - and not just as a veteran voice in the locker room. In last year’s Super Bowl win with Philadelphia, he was part of a dominant front that made life miserable for Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs.
That Eagles defense pressured Mahomes on 40% of his dropbacks and racked up 30 individual pressures. Williams himself had four of those, including two sacks - one of them a strip sack that helped swing momentum.
Fast forward to this season, and Williams has brought that same disruptive energy to a revitalized Patriots pass rush. His presence up front has been a difference-maker, and now New England will look to unleash that pressure again - this time against Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold.
“It don’t matter who they got, what they run, what’s the scheme,” Williams said. “If we do what we do up front, I always put the game on us and be able to control the line of scrimmage.”
That’s not just locker room talk - it’s been the Patriots’ identity all postseason. Control the trenches, control the game. And against a quarterback like Darnold, who’s shown he can make all the throws when kept clean, that pressure becomes even more critical.
“They got a quarterback there just like CJ Stroud,” Williams said. “You keep him clean, he can make all the throws. But it’s our job to get back there, speed him up, get him off the spot, try to take advantage and try to make him put the ball in harm’s way.”
For New England, this Super Bowl isn’t just a shot at redemption after a forgettable season a year ago - it’s a statement. And Milton Williams, once again anchoring the defensive front on the sport’s biggest stage, is ready to make it loud and clear.