Nohl Williams
Kansas City ChiefsUNDERPAIDModel Score
How good he is at what he is supposed to be doing, out of 100. Not a projection of what he will do next, and not a read on his contract. Median is about 70, and a 95 is rare. How it is built →
Season Stats · 17 games
Draft & College
He went earlier than consensus.
Covers the college seasons in our data, which does not always reach back to a player's first year.
Comps
STM Take
Rookie tier 5 (#38) for an 85th overall 3rd-round pick is on the upper end of the year-one band for Day 2 CB prospects. The California Pac-12 35-start pedigree plus the structural Chiefs CB rotation gives him real college foundation. The 2026 question is whether Williams crosses into tier 4 territory in his year-two jump or whether the structural rookie tier 5 finish becomes the stable baseline.
Williams came out of California as the Kansas City Chiefs' 3rd-round pick (85th overall) in 2025 after starting 35 games for the Golden Bears and earning 2024 First-Team All-Pac-12 honors. The Chiefs used him in the CB rotation as a rookie. His first STTM appearance comes in 2025 at tier 5 (#38), a strong year-one finish for a 3rd-round Day 2 pick.
Strengths
- California Pac-12 2024 First-Team All-Pac-12 honors plus the 85th overall draft slot gives him real college foundation.
- Year-one rotational reps for the Chiefs at age 22 plus the structural anchor reps gives him the developmental runway.
Concerns
- Single tier 5 finish without prior STTM history caps the long-term projection certainty.
- Kansas City's broader defensive identity transition compresses the structural support around Williams.
What to watch: Whether Williams crosses into tier 4 (top 30) in 2026, the standard year-two threshold for 3rd-round CB picks on stable-starter trajectories.