Pro Bowl voting opened Sunday and the Ravens have had a defensive representative every year of their 20-year existence except one (2005).
So who is this year’s top Ravens nominee so far?
It’s the big guy in the middle, defensive tackle 
Before the season began, Head Coach John Harbaugh and others pointed to Williams as the Ravens’ next dominant defensive player. In a year that has hardly gone according to plan, Williams has been one of the few pieces that has met or exceeded expectations.
“He has been a dominant factor in the middle of our defense,” Harbaugh said Wednesday.
Last year’s two defensive Pro Bowlers –
Mosley blamed himself for the defensive problems against Cleveland and has had some trouble in coverage. After leading the Ravens in tackles last year, Mosley trails
Without
Another player who garnered Pro Bowl hype before the season, cornerback
“You gonna get my boy Brandon in the Pro Bowl?” Smith asked as a reporter approached Williams recently, making his pitch for his locker mate instead of himself.
Williams has made an excellent case. Now it’s just a matter of him getting the attention he deserves.
According to Pro Football Focus (PFF), Williams is the best run defender in the NFL and it’s not even close. Williams has a plus-21.5 rating against the run. The closest defender is the New York Jets defensive end Muhammad Wilkerson (plus-10.6).
Williams is the Ravens’ best defender, according to PFF, and, once again, it’s not close. He has a plus-21.0 rating. Dumervil comes in second at plus-13.2 and safety
Williams is rated as the NFL’s third-highest rated defensive tackle/nose tackle, just barely trailing St. Louis’ Aaron Donald (plus-23.9) and Cincinnati’s Geno Atkins (plus-21.6). While the Ravens have one of the worst pass defenses in the league, they’re ninth against the run (94.5 yards per game). Those numbers are not a reflection of teams simply throwing the ball instead of running. The Ravens are seventh in the league in average yards allowed per attempt (3.6 yards).
That’s in large part due to Williams.
But Williams doesn’t just eat up double teams like many nose tackles. He also makes plays himself. He has 26 tackles, one sack and two passes defensed. His three tackles for loss are tied for the team lead.
“There’s a point in every game we’ve played, where there’s a series of maybe two, three, sometimes four plays in a row where he just dominated the front when we really needed it,” Defensive Line Coach Clarence Brooks said.
“It happened in the game the other day. We needed some things to happen and he ripped off three plays in a row where they just couldn’t block him.”
There was some concern about the Ravens’ ability to stop the run when the team traded Haloti Ngata to the Detroit Lions this offseason. While Williams was already a starter last season, he took on more of the run-stopping responsibility without his mentor by his side.
And while Williams has had a monster season so far, Ngata has struggled with injuries and ineffectiveness in Detroit. Ngata has an overall minus-2.5 rating from PFF.
“He knows that with Haloti gone, he’s the guy that’s got to pick up all the slack,” Brooks said. “He’s the guy that has to be our bell cow in that area. He accepted and wanted that. Every day, he’s working his butt off on the practice field to do it.”
So how has Williams done it?
Williams has long had the physique for the position. At 6-foot-1, 335 pounds, he has to be one of the most muscular Ravens in team history. As Brooks said, “God didn’t make many of those guys.”
“He’s a tremendously strong individual,” Brooks added.
But Williams didn’t start playing football until high school because he fancied himself more of a basketball player. His older brother tricked him into coming out for football. He played college ball at tiny Missouri Southern State. Bonus points if you know where that is – other than southern Missouri.
Despite the late start and small school, Brooks said Williams has natural football intelligence.
The rest he makes up for with work ethic and a mentality that doesn’t seem to jive with the warm-hearted goofball he is off the field.
“You always hear about the switch. Once you put the helmet on, it’s a whole different story,” Williams said.
“The game plan is to go in there and be a wrecking ball. There’s a lot of technique, there’s a lot of coaching and little things that go into it. But other than that, it’s just going in there and creating utter destruction.”
Williams said offensive linemen from opposing teams have been giving him a lot of props after games. He doesn’t want to hear it. Not after a loss. When teammates have approached him on the team plane on flights back home to marvel over plays they see while watching the game back on their iPads, Williams shrugs it off.
“I’ll be like, ‘Oh, that’s cool.’ But I’m not going to be like, ‘Oh yeah! I’m killing cats!’” Williams said. “It’s my job. That’s supposed to happen.”
So what would Williams think about a trip to the Pro Bowl?
“I always told myself, I’m never going to go to Hawaii until I go there for a Pro Bowl,” he said.
“I’d be honored and happy and ecstatic. I’ve always talked about it and dreamed about it. But that’s something I can’t think about right now. You’ve got to work your butt off every week to get that win. That’s what I’m worried about more than any accolade.”
