INDIANAPOLIS — A healthy Mykel Williams smiled from behind the podium at the 2025 NFL Combine on Wednesday.

“I’m as healthy as I’ve been all year,” Williams said, his 6-foot-5 frame looking leaner than ever at 265 pounds after weeks of training leading up to the NFL’s showcase pre-NFL draft event.

That said, Williams explained why he won’t be taking part in many of the drills at the combine because he took a couple of extra weeks after the season to give the ankle he injured — and re-injured more than once during the course of the season — a few more weeks to heal.

“That delayed my training, so I got a late jump,” Williams said. “So (UGA Pro Day) is what I’m going for.”

Georgia has yet to formally announce its Pro Day date, but it’s tentatively set for March 12, per a team source.

So while Williams, a projected Top 10 pick, is relieved to have two healthy ankles under him, it has been the meetings he has had with several NFL teams that has put a smile on his face.

It’s one thing for Williams to know what he’s capable of when he’s healthy, but it’s quite another for NFL teams to tell him that — as they have — and acknowledge his willingness to play through pain amid the rigorous SEC landscape.

“They love it, they see I got that Dawg in me — they understand, and it’s what they want.”

Georgia coach Kirby Smart mentioned more than once this season that Williams’ wasn’t 100 percent after injuring his ankle in UGA’s season-opening 34-3 win over Clemson.

But the high expectations for Williams are and have been what they are, from the time he walked through the doors of Butts-Mehre Heritage Hall, there were comparisons to former Bulldog and No. 1 overall pick Travon Walker.

“Travon is himself, I’m myself, but I’ve got to go out there and perform the same,” Williams said of the comparison to the Jacksonville Jaguars’ star outside linebacker.

“Travon was special because of how big he is (6-5, 272) and how fast he can move, very persistent, versatile, like myself …. I think that’s where the comparison comes from, but yeh, that’s what made us special.”

Like Walker, Williams’ stats, sack numbers and accolades didn’t equal the impact he was having in games.

But coaches like Texas’ Steve Sarkisian knew: No. 13 was a problem for offenses that had to be addressed on most any play call.

It wasn’t just having two players assigned on Williams at appropriate times — it had to be the right two guys.

“He’s obviously an elite pass rusher that can put stress on your tackles and put stress on your quarterback,” Sarkisian said, after Williams spent a night in Austin chasing Quinn Ewers out of the pocket for Jalon Walker to clean up on.

“(Williams) looked a lot better in person than he did on tape throughout the season. I know he hadn’t been healthy since the very beginning of the year, but they got him healthy right in the nick of time for our game.”

Williams explained that the week UGA prepped to play the Longhorns in Austin was the first he had practiced since suffering the injury.

It turns out Sarkisian — and many other coaches on Georgia’s schedule — were often seeing Williams play at what he estimated was “less than 70″ percent this season.

As frustrating as it was for Williams to deal with physical limitations, the UGA star shared there was also great value in it that went beyond helping the Bulldogs win an SEC championship.

“I learned that, I have a different grit about myself, that I can push through pain, no matter how I feel, like I can still get it done,” Williams said, well-aware that the same bumps and bruises he experienced playing through in the SEC will await him at the professional level.

Williams’ skillset is indeed highly desirable, as his hand-fighting skills are elite, keeping would-be blockers off his body and allowing him to use his quickness and closing speed to make plays.

“That’s something I constantly work on, when I was a freshman, I worked with Chuck Smith,” Williams said, giving a shout out to the former Athens Clarke Central High School who worked with prospects after his NFL playing career and is currently Baltimore Ravens pass rush coach.

Williams said to continue to elevate his game at the next level he’ll continue to work on his hand usage as well as “pad level and vision,’” while making the most of the lessons learned from Georgia’s celebrated veteran defensive line coach, Tray Scott.

“He really, really turned that (run game defense) for me,” Williams said. “The way he teaches, his style.”

Whatever NFL demands, practices and conditioning drills lie ahead, Williams is confident he will be ready.

Reflecting on his hardest workout at Georgia, Williams recalled an example of the standard he will bring with him.

“We were supposed to run the stadium (stairs) — it rained, but we stayed, ran 21 times in the rain,” Williams said. “Then the next day we hit the stadium again, so we ended up doing stadium twice, because one of our leaders, Sed Van Pran, said the quality wasn’t enough.

“So we went back the next day, ran up, and ran up again, like a series of them.”

And now it’s Williams NFL draft stock that’s going up, a once-again healthy player built the Georgia Way in Smart’s championship program.

“He has great size, great athleticism,” Smart said, endorsing Williams’ last October as he played through his ankle injury.

“He’s able to set edges at a high level for us because he’s big enough to play it, but he’s also athletic enough to do some of the things outside ‘backers do. So he’s cutting the cloth of what you want to play with out there on the edges.”