Trevor Hagan/CFL.ca
The Edmonton Eskimos’ top receiver so for this season is a strange mix of some of his Green and Gold predecessors and somehow, maybe Manu Ginobili.
Williams has 14 catches for 308 yards and two touchdowns. Going into Week 4, he was leading the league in receiving as well.
At six-foot-three, D’haquille ‘Duke’ Williams is the same height as Adarius Bowman, who led the team in receiving in 2011 and from 2014 to 2016. His 225 pounds is just five pounds more than Brandon Zylstra, who led the team in receiving last season.
Then there’s the Euro step.
RELATED:
» Bio: Duke Williams by the numbers
» Pick ‘Em Marquee Matchup: CFL’s hottest offence lands in Toronto
» The Student vs. The Master: Does it get any better thank Franklin vs. Reilly?
In the two times that Williams has found the end zone this season, he’s looked to basketball for his celebration. Williams breaks the plane and immediately cradles the ball in both hands and high steps his way back up the field, the way that Ginobili, the San Antonio Spurs legend, hop-skips his way to the basket.
The celebration seems to be evolving. Last week, after Williams pulled in a tough, 64-yard catch from Reilly, he found the end zone, Euro stepped and tossed the ball to fullback Alexandre Dupuis, who threw a lob up to Williams for the slam dunk on a non-existent net.
“It came from one of my teammates, (Esks receiver) Nick Taylor,” Williams said of his celebration.
“He did it in the pre-season against Winnipeg and I’d seen it, and I was like, ‘I have to borrow that from you, bro.’ He said I’ve got to finesse it a little bit. I’ve been working on finessing the euro a little bit, but I definitely got it from Nick Taylor.”
Williams, Taylor, Derel Walker and the rest of the Edmonton receiving corps have been brainstorming ways to celebrate their touchdowns.
“As we go we plan along with it, me and D-Walk, we find ways to have fun on the field,” Williams said. “All the hard work we’ve been doing during the week practicing is paying off in the end zone.”
As the first digit in that one-two punch, Reilly said that experience has been one of the key factors in Williams’ start to the season. Williams played in 13 games last year, pulling in 46 passes for 715 yards and four touchdowns. He fell back in the depth chart when Walker rejoined the team mid-season and when Bowman came back from injury.
“Duke’s very talented, physically,” Reilly said.
“He makes a lot of issues for the defence based on his skillset, how big he is, how strong he is, his catch radius. But also he has speed for a guy that that’s big.
“What’s helped him this year is having that foundation from last year of playing in that amount of games and having an off-season to kind of study and figure out what he needs to get better on during the off-season.”
Williams went home to New Orleans last December and treated the off-season like a long bye week.
“It definitely gave me a head start this year,” Williams said. “ I actually watched old film I had from last season and that helped me out with this season. With (Zylstra) being gone and (Bowman) being gone I knew I had to step up in some type of way. So I took pride in that, and I put in all the work I had to do to make sure I helped my team out.”
Williams is near the top of the league in receiving yards though Week 4 (Trevor Hagan/CFL.ca)
Knowing what to expect in terms of how the Canadian game works, knowing what defences try to do to you, having faces to put to opponents across the league, it’s all made a difference for Williams so far this season.
“He came in much more prepared to be a CFL wide receiver this year and because of that I trust him more, the coaching staff trusts him more and I think he trusts his own ability more,” Reilly said.
“We’re more willing to give him opportunities on different routes and things like that that maybe last year he wasn’t getting to run for us. I think that, combined with his natural ability to play football and play wide receiver at an all-star level makes him pretty dangerous, too.”
You won’t see Reilly in any of the Esks’ over-the-top celebrations, but if you catch his pass in the end zone, you’ve got free reign on what comes next.
“He can do whatever he wants, as long as he continues to play well on the football field. We spent a little time on the basketball court during training camp and he can hoop, for sure. He’s a multi-sport athlete, I guess.”
