Is Detroit Lions' Jameson Williams finally breaking out? His coaches, teammates think so
Shawn Windsor
Detroit Free Press
Jameson Williams has a long way to go to become the player the Detroit Lions hope he will be, to become the player the fans expect — or at least did expect when he was selected 12th overall in the 2022 NFL draft.
Yet the distance between that lofty and faraway place and where Williams is now isn’t as great as it was a week ago.
Certainly, two weeks ago.
Definitely a month ago.
Jared Goff isn’t surprised. He has seen the second-year receiver look great in practice recently.
“Yeah, the last couple of weeks for him have been so good,” Goff said after Sunday's 31-26 win over the Bears at Ford Field. “He’s practiced so well. We do trust him now. We trust him a lot.”
Goff’s quote obviously begs the question: The Lions didn’t trust Williams before?
Well, of course, they didn’t. Not to run the right route, or run the route properly, or understand where he needed to be on certain run plays.
They didn’t always trust he would make the catch, especially if the catch could only be made in traffic. They weren’t sure about his ability to track deep balls or to adjust to deep balls.
They had lots of questions, frankly, and his lost time last year because of an ACL and this year because of a hamstring and a gambling suspension, well, it made it hard to get answers.
Slowly, the Lions are starting to get them. Not all of them. It’s too soon for that. But answers to some of the most important questions.
Like: Does Williams like football?
“Lives and breathes it,” said linebacker Alex Anzalone.
Or: Does he enjoy blocking?
“Happily,” said left tackle Taylor Decker.
And, finally: Does he like to work, to grind? Will he keep showing up?
“He’s putting in the work,” head coach Dan Campbell said.
It’s starting to show, both in the way Goff is starting to target him in games and the way he is (slowly) beginning to make plays.
Sunday's touchdown was one such play. It came on a pylon route, where the receiver heads to that part of the end zone. Williams got behind the defense. But for him, that was the easy part. Few players are as fast.
What his coaches and his quarterback loved is that Williams read the play correctly. In the formation, he had choices. Here, let’s let Williams explain:
“I kind of saw the safety before the play. We (were) running it off him. So, if he was inside of me, I know once I get about 12 or 15 yards, if he is not able to run with me to the back pylon, then we got him. … After that, we make that read on the corner. Is he going to go high or low? It’s me or it’s a corner route under me.”
Williams spotted the safety, watched how the corner reacted as he began his route, and then hit the gas. The Bears' secondary didn’t have a chance.
The 32-yard touchdown came with 2:59 left in the game. It cut Chicago’s lead to five. It helped change momentum. It stopped the boos.
Wait, there was booing, asked Goff?
“I actually didn’t hear that. I heard about that, but I didn’t hear that.”
So, yeah, Williams helped quiet the boos. Imagine that? Not that Williams is worried about that, or any of the booing or chirping or doubting that’s come his way.
“It's easy to get lost in the football world in media and fans but, you know, he just keeps showing up for his teammates and that’s really who he is,” Anzalone said. “Obviously, there is a perception about him that isn’t as true as you think it is.”
One touchdown isn’t going to permanently change perceptions about Williams, nor recalibrate expectation; after all, he has scored before. But he has improved by almost every measure lately, and in particular the last two weeks.
His first catch Sunday may have been his best play of the season. He caught a 12-yarder on a crossing route. He got hit from behind as he caught it. He held on. The crowd cheered.
A routine catch? Perhaps. Yet nothing has been routine about Williams’ introduction to the NFL. Also, he has clearly had an issue with drops. And when he held on after getting walloped, it felt like progress.
Now, neither catch demanded he stretch his arms out and steal the ball out of the air with his fingertips. But holding onto a catch is progress. Reading the defense and gaining the trust of the quarterback is progress.
Where will this go? And what kind of player can he ultimately be?
Those are questions for another time, a later date. For now, as Campbell said, Williams is “part of the herd. He’s been accepted.”
And?
“He blocks,” said Campbell, “and he’s starting to run some pretty good routes and he’s making some catches and there’s a lot of guys that are beginning to trust him, and that’s been earned. No different than anybody else had to earn it.”
Earned. Remember that word the next time Williams’ name comes up. Remember, too, that he is still young, and that not only has he earned the trust of his teammates and his quarterback because he is learning how to read an NFL defense and learning how to run NFL routes, but also because he has always grinded.
He loves football, and that helps. He loves hitting, too. His eagerness to get physical has helped him stay connected to his teammates and earn respect in the locker room, even as he struggled on the field with other receiving duties.
“For a young receiver … he’s just doing what he’s asked to do,” Decker said. “That builds trust. Because when he’s blocking for the running backs in the run game, and kinda representing what that wide receiver room is about — we have receivers that go in there and dig it out, and he’s happily going in and doing that — that speaks a lot.”
Decker and Goff like to think about where this offense might eventually go if Williams keeps on the track he’s been on lately.
“As he continues to progress,” said Goff, “the level to which our offense could possibly go with him … is pretty exciting.”
For the first time since Williams arrived, that possibility is not so hard to see. Again, getting there will take time, maybe a lot more time. But everyone has their own timeline, and while Williams may never become an All-Pro receiver, he has shown he can become a difference-maker.
He made a difference Sunday, one read, one block, one route at a time.
Contact Shawn Windsor: 313-222-6487 or swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him@shawnwindsor.
Shawn Windsor
Detroit Free Press
Jameson Williams has a long way to go to become the player the Detroit Lions hope he will be, to become the player the fans expect — or at least did expect when he was selected 12th overall in the 2022 NFL draft.
Yet the distance between that lofty and faraway place and where Williams is now isn’t as great as it was a week ago.
Certainly, two weeks ago.
Definitely a month ago.
Jared Goff isn’t surprised. He has seen the second-year receiver look great in practice recently.
“Yeah, the last couple of weeks for him have been so good,” Goff said after Sunday's 31-26 win over the Bears at Ford Field. “He’s practiced so well. We do trust him now. We trust him a lot.”
Goff’s quote obviously begs the question: The Lions didn’t trust Williams before?
Well, of course, they didn’t. Not to run the right route, or run the route properly, or understand where he needed to be on certain run plays.
They didn’t always trust he would make the catch, especially if the catch could only be made in traffic. They weren’t sure about his ability to track deep balls or to adjust to deep balls.
They had lots of questions, frankly, and his lost time last year because of an ACL and this year because of a hamstring and a gambling suspension, well, it made it hard to get answers.
Slowly, the Lions are starting to get them. Not all of them. It’s too soon for that. But answers to some of the most important questions.
Like: Does Williams like football?
“Lives and breathes it,” said linebacker Alex Anzalone.
Or: Does he enjoy blocking?
“Happily,” said left tackle Taylor Decker.
And, finally: Does he like to work, to grind? Will he keep showing up?
“He’s putting in the work,” head coach Dan Campbell said.
It’s starting to show, both in the way Goff is starting to target him in games and the way he is (slowly) beginning to make plays.
Sunday's touchdown was one such play. It came on a pylon route, where the receiver heads to that part of the end zone. Williams got behind the defense. But for him, that was the easy part. Few players are as fast.
What his coaches and his quarterback loved is that Williams read the play correctly. In the formation, he had choices. Here, let’s let Williams explain:
“I kind of saw the safety before the play. We (were) running it off him. So, if he was inside of me, I know once I get about 12 or 15 yards, if he is not able to run with me to the back pylon, then we got him. … After that, we make that read on the corner. Is he going to go high or low? It’s me or it’s a corner route under me.”
Williams spotted the safety, watched how the corner reacted as he began his route, and then hit the gas. The Bears' secondary didn’t have a chance.
The 32-yard touchdown came with 2:59 left in the game. It cut Chicago’s lead to five. It helped change momentum. It stopped the boos.
Wait, there was booing, asked Goff?
“I actually didn’t hear that. I heard about that, but I didn’t hear that.”
So, yeah, Williams helped quiet the boos. Imagine that? Not that Williams is worried about that, or any of the booing or chirping or doubting that’s come his way.
“It's easy to get lost in the football world in media and fans but, you know, he just keeps showing up for his teammates and that’s really who he is,” Anzalone said. “Obviously, there is a perception about him that isn’t as true as you think it is.”
One touchdown isn’t going to permanently change perceptions about Williams, nor recalibrate expectation; after all, he has scored before. But he has improved by almost every measure lately, and in particular the last two weeks.
His first catch Sunday may have been his best play of the season. He caught a 12-yarder on a crossing route. He got hit from behind as he caught it. He held on. The crowd cheered.
A routine catch? Perhaps. Yet nothing has been routine about Williams’ introduction to the NFL. Also, he has clearly had an issue with drops. And when he held on after getting walloped, it felt like progress.
Now, neither catch demanded he stretch his arms out and steal the ball out of the air with his fingertips. But holding onto a catch is progress. Reading the defense and gaining the trust of the quarterback is progress.
Where will this go? And what kind of player can he ultimately be?
Those are questions for another time, a later date. For now, as Campbell said, Williams is “part of the herd. He’s been accepted.”
And?
“He blocks,” said Campbell, “and he’s starting to run some pretty good routes and he’s making some catches and there’s a lot of guys that are beginning to trust him, and that’s been earned. No different than anybody else had to earn it.”
Earned. Remember that word the next time Williams’ name comes up. Remember, too, that he is still young, and that not only has he earned the trust of his teammates and his quarterback because he is learning how to read an NFL defense and learning how to run NFL routes, but also because he has always grinded.
He loves football, and that helps. He loves hitting, too. His eagerness to get physical has helped him stay connected to his teammates and earn respect in the locker room, even as he struggled on the field with other receiving duties.
“For a young receiver … he’s just doing what he’s asked to do,” Decker said. “That builds trust. Because when he’s blocking for the running backs in the run game, and kinda representing what that wide receiver room is about — we have receivers that go in there and dig it out, and he’s happily going in and doing that — that speaks a lot.”
Decker and Goff like to think about where this offense might eventually go if Williams keeps on the track he’s been on lately.
“As he continues to progress,” said Goff, “the level to which our offense could possibly go with him … is pretty exciting.”
For the first time since Williams arrived, that possibility is not so hard to see. Again, getting there will take time, maybe a lot more time. But everyone has their own timeline, and while Williams may never become an All-Pro receiver, he has shown he can become a difference-maker.
He made a difference Sunday, one read, one block, one route at a time.
Contact Shawn Windsor: 313-222-6487 or swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him@shawnwindsor.
Comment