Jerry Jones expects Sam Williams arrest won't affect availability

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones doesn’t expect Sam Williams‘ availability for the 2023 season to be affected after the defensive end’s arrest Sunday.

Per Jon Machota of The Athletic, Jones confirmed at the Cowboys’ Season Kickoff event Wednesday he has all the details related to Williams’ arrest.

Williams, the second-year player out of Ole Miss, was arrested for possession of a controlled substance and unlawful carrying of a weapon. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram confirmed the arrest with a spokesman for the Frisco police department.

Williams suited up in the Cowboys’ second preseason game against the Seattle Seahawks this past Saturday. The Star-Telegram noted that Williams practiced with the team Tuesday. The Cowboys were off Monday. Williams played in 15 games as a rookie, notching 22 total tackles and four sacks.

Jones later joked that Williams is maturing given he was going slower this time than last year when he got into an accident.

“He’s maturing and he is,” Jones said, via Calvin Watkins of the Dallas Morning News. “He was going 66 miles per hour this year. So he’s 34 miles an hour less than he was last year, 98 to 66 so that’s improvement.”

Sam Williams has had previous issues with the law

The incident Jones referred to occurred three days before this past Christmas, when Williams was out driving his new black Corvette when he hit another car. The accident happened in the middle of the afternoon. Police estimated he was driving the car at speeds near 100 mph up to a half second before he hit an SUV driven by a 71-year-old woman. Nearly three weeks after the incident, police charged Williams for reckless driving, a misdemeanor. This accident occurred in Plano, a bedroom community outside Dallas and near Frisco.

Fortunately, neither Williams nor the other driver were seriously injured. The accident blocked traffic for three hours. According to the arrest affidavit, the driver told police she was “midway through the turn.” Then, she said a “black Corvette came around another vehicle at a high rate of speed. She advised there was nothing she could do, and the Corvette struck her car.”

Williams suffered a concussion and missed a game as a precaution.