Here are Julius Pepper's stats for last year, compared to averages:
tackles:50 (49.5)
sacks: 10.5 (10)
Forced fumbles: 2 (3.5)
Ints: 0 (0.75)
Is he good? Definitely. Is he a gamechanger on every play? Probably not. I think we can find our "Julius Pepper's" clone somewhere else, personally. I don't think 10 sacks should be all that impossible to achieve for a DE in a 4-3 scheme, and none of his other stats (tackles, forced fumbles, ints, etc) are that impressive. There were 16 players last year who had 10 or more sacks. Maybe he commands a lot of double teams and what not, but even so, Carolina ranked 7th in total defensive sacks compared to our 14th (not that huge of a jump, and only a difference of 8 take downs).
I don't know, I like Williams, but unless he's better than Peppers, I don't think we need to spend our #1 overall pick on the guy. 2 DL players in 2 years 1st rounds in a row? And when you already rank 14th in sacks the previous season? Seems wasteful