Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox. Subscribe to our sports newsletter here.

Syracuse cornerback Garrett Williams, who missed the final five games of the season with a torn ACL, has declared for the 2023 NFL draft. The redshirt sophomore played in 32 games across four seasons with the Orange and blossomed from a three-star recruit into one of the top cornerbacks in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Williams is foregoing his remaining two years of eligibility and officially entering the draft process. After the 2021 season, he submitted his name into the NFL Draft Advisory Board, a panel composed of professional scouts who give opinions to underclassmen players on their draft stock. But the board told him that though he was coming off a second straight season of leading the conference in pass breakups and earning All-ACC honors, he would be selected “very late in the process” and told him to return to SU.

The 6-foot cornerback returned this season to become a starter for the third straight year, totaling 36 tackles, a sack, two interceptions and a fumble recovery before suffering a season-ending injury against Notre Dame. He finishes his collegiate career with four interceptions, 115 solo tackles and 27 pass defended. 

Williams first committed to Syracuse in 2018 as a three-star cornerback from North Carolina, the state’s 75th-rated athlete according to 247sports.com. He appeared sporadically in his freshman year on special teams, then started at cornerback in SU’s COVID-19-shortened 2020 season, when he led the conference in passes defended and earned All-ACC Honorable Mention honors. In 2021, Williams led all Syracuse defensive backs with 52 tackles and five tackles for loss in the Orange’s first season without Trill Williams, Andre Cisco and Ifeatu Melifonwu.

Throughout those two seasons, he emerged as the next NFL draft prospect in a long line of SU defensive backs, garnering scout’s attention as the seasons progressed. At one point, he was projected as a prospect that could land anywhere from the first to the third round, despite dealing with injuries during both the 2021 campaign.