Trent Williams immediately felt the 49ers positive culture
Trent Williams experienced a lot while a member of the Washington Football team but a winning culture wasn’t one of those things.
The seven-time Pro Bowl left tackle finally had a chance to join his new team this week and couldn’t be more excited about his new work environment.
“Soon as you walk in this building, the vibe is different,” Williams said to media via video conference on Thursday. “I think my first team meeting before it even started, first time us all being together, I could just feel the vibe being just, this environment — that Kyle [Shanahan] has created, John [Lynch] has created, I think they’ve done an outstanding job.”
The closeness of the 49ers locker room was noted by Emmanuel Sanders when he joined the team in 2019, in the middle of the season. He was surprised by the warm welcome and how easily it was for him to fit in. Williams has already experienced the same openness.
“They got a lot of like-minded fellas in the locker room and I think everybody feeds off each other and everybody encourages each other,” Williams said. “It’s just one of those things that you got to experience to believe.”
That energy has been notable outside the locker room as well. After an extended off season because of COVID restrictions, players have been a little more energized than usual for training camp.
Running back Raheem Mostert mentioned earlier in the week that the team’s walk-through on the practice field have been more like “run-throughs.” Players have not only been excited to finally get back to work, but also to start on their path to redemption and revenge after their loss in Super Bowl LIV.
“Walk through?” Williams quipped. “He said was a run-through, I say it was a game. Coming from where I came from, a walk through was a walk through. I mean we — our walk through here was pretty intense.
“A lot of focus, a lot of attention to detail and guys were flying around. You could tell this is a hungry group of guys and I feel like I fit right in.”