[1] During his college career, he started 30 of 54 games in which he appeared, and accumulated 209 tackles (131 solo), including 10.5 for a loss, 11 pass break ups, four interceptions and one quarterback sack.

[5] Throughout training camp, Williams competed for a job as the starting strong safety against Taylor Mays, George Iloka, Jeromy Miles, and Tony Dye.

[6] Head coach Marvin Lewis named Williams the third strong safety on the depth chart to start the regular season, behind George Iloka and Taylor Mays.

Williams finished the Bengals' 49–9 victory against the New York Jets with a season-high four combined tackles after replacing Taylor Mays, as the main backup safety, due to an injury.

[11][12] New defensive coordinator Paul Guenther named Williams the backup strong safety, behind George Iloka, to start the regular season.

[14] Throughout training camp in 2015, Williams competed for the job as the backup safety against Shiloh Keo, Derron Smith, Floyd Raven Sr., and Erick Dargon.

[15][16] Head coach Marvin Lewis named Williams the backup free safety behind Reggie Nelson to start the regular season.

[5][21] Williams entered training camp as the favorite to win the vacant starting safety role after the Bengals opted not to re-sign Reggie Nelson.

[22] Head coach Marvin Lewis officially named him the starting strong safety to begin the regular season, alongside George Iloka.

On October 23, 2016, Williams made five combined tackles, a pass deflection, an interception, and his first career sack on quarterback Kevin Hogan during the Bengals 31–17 win against the Cleveland Browns.

[26] On August 19, 2017, Williams made two combined tackles before leaving in the third quarter after sustaining an elbow injury during the Bengals' 30–12 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in their second preseason game.

[31] The very next game, on September 13, he recorded a sack, an interception, and a forced fumble against the Baltimore Ravens, strip-sacking Joe Flacco in the 4th quarter to seal the 34–23 victory.

[34] In Week 13 against the Miami Dolphins, Williams intentionally stepped on Solomon Kindley's foot, and was suspended one game by the NFL for violating the league's unnecessary roughness and unsportsmanlike conduct policies.