Detroit Lions wide receiver Jameson Williams has gotten off to a fairly slow start to his career. Through two seasons, Williams has played in just 18 games, and he's caught only 25 passes for 395 yards and three touchdowns.
Of course, there are extenuating circumstances to that slow start. Williams suffered a torn ACL in his final collegiate game before the Lions took him with the No. 12 overall pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, and he did not make his debut until Week 13. Detroit eased him into the lineup, not giving him more than 25% of the snaps in any game during his rookie season.
Then Williams was suspended for the start of his sophomore campaign for violating the NFL's gambling policy by betting on (non-NFL) games from a team facility. He sat out the first four weeks and was again eased back into the lineup, not making a start until the team's seventh game of the year. He didn't crack a 50% snap rate until Week 10, after which he caught 18 passes for 283 yards and a score across eight games.
Still, head coach Dan Campbell has extremely high hopes for Williams heading into Year 3. "He's a man on a mission, and I'm just gonna leave it at that," Campbell said, via The Athletic.
In an offense that counts Amon-Ra St. Brown and Sam LaPorta as its top targets and also features a strong pass-catching running back in Jahmyr Gibbs, Williams has a skill that can obviously provide a lot of value in his game-breaking speed. St. Brown is a slot man, LaPorta is a tight end and Gibbs is a running back. They all operate mostly in the underneath areas of the field.
Williams can provide a field-stretching element for Jared Goff, while also potentially making hay with yards after the catch. That's the theory, at least. But if Campbell's confidence is any indication of what's to come, perhaps we'll see that theory turn into reality in 2024.
