Ball-hawking Tar Heel safety whose elite instincts once made him a projected NFL star
In the 2010 season, Deunta Williams was an All-ACC free safety for North Carolina who had already piled up 12 career interceptions, including six picks and 47 tackles in his 2009 breakout, and he entered the year on the Jim Thorpe Award watch list as one of the league’s top defensive backs[2][12]. His calling card was range, anticipation, and real playmaking juice — the kind of safety who changes throwing windows, not just fills stat sheets[2]. The caveat was durability: a gruesome leg injury in his final college game wrecked a likely high draft stock and became the big “fit” question for any team betting on him[7][14].
