Detroit Lions wide receiver Jameson Williams will hit 1,000 yards this season. Here’s why:
The Detroit Lions are in the middle of training camp, with this week being joint practices with the New York Giants leading up to the first preseason game of 2024 on Thursday at 7 p.m. ET. Last season in this series, I gave two bold predictions, one was accurate , and the other was pretty damn close . Well, it’s time to start this back up, and who else to talk about bold than wide receiver Jameson Williams?
Ever since his draft night in 2022, Williams has been under a microscope from not just the NFL fans but also the Lions fandom and media. He missed most of his rookie season in 2022 as he was recovering from a torn ACL he suffered with Alabama. After only playing in six games, getting just one catch for 41 yards and a touchdown, year two would be his best chance to showcase what he could do.
That was until the NFL suspended Williams last April for violating league rules for gambling. The suspension originally forced Williams to miss six games before it was reduced to four . While he was not allowed to play in the regular season, he could still participate in training camp and preseason, but a hamstring bothered Williams, forcing him to miss two preseason games and precious practice time with his teammates.
After serving his suspension, Williams slowly got involved in the offense. By the year’s end, he had a role, but it wasn’t as expansive as it could have been. Now, with no suspensions and no injuries, Williams is looking to have his best season in 2024. Let me tell you why I believe Williams will get over 1,000 receiving yards in 2024.
Being available
As the famous Pride of Detroit staff member Ryan Mathews always says, “the best ability is availability,” and for Williams, that couldn’t be any more true. While you can’t judge him for 2022 too harshly, as expectations were low since he wouldn’t be playing much, the time he had when he was on the field wasn’t the best. The only catch he had excited Lions fans for what his future held, but he had a few other reps that weren’t impressive and showed some rust to his game coming off his injury.
In 2023, Williams knew he needed to dive in and showcase what he could do; he was limited initially due to his own mistakes with gambling and then dealing with a preseason injury that took time away for him to develop with his team. Most importantly, he missed out on building chemistry with quarterback Jared Goff. Not being available for the back part of training camp and the first four weeks of the season slowed down his progression as a player on the team.
This year, Williams doesn’t have a suspension over him, and he hasn’t left practice due to an injury. The back half of 2023 and the playoffs helped him immensely, but I believe this preseason and training camp has pushed Williams to another level. The more practice he can get with the starting offense, the better, and as the clear number two receiver on the team, his role will only get bigger.
Improving as a player
When it comes to Williams as a player, everyone mentions his speed. While that is important and helpful, there is more to the game of football than just being faster than the guy in front of you. During the offseason, Williams worked on his lower body strength and improved as a route runner. Lions head coach Dan Campbell was excited for Williams in May and saw his improvement.
“And we’re two practices in (to OTAs) and if you said, ‘Give me one player that is the most improved from that start to finish in that time,’ and Jamo would be that guy right now,” Campbell said. “He is a man on a mission, and I’m just going to leave it at that.”
Campbell hasn’t been the only person noticing the improvement, as Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson praised Williams for how he has grown as a player.
“We started feeling it toward the end of last year. He’s taken that to another level in the springtime and so far here in training camp,” Johnson said. “He prides himself on bringing some juice to the offense, and we certainly feel it out there. Both in the passing game, making explosive plays, but he also wants to be a dynamic blocker as well. Things have started to slow down mentally for him. We’ve locked him in to a couple spots. As a result, his route tree has kind of grown. It’s developed. In his mind, there’s nothing he can’t do, and so far, we really haven’t seen that either.”
“We haven’t seen anything that he can’t do.”
[Chills run down my spine.]
Under the radar still
Despite playing in 10 regular season games and all three playoff games, Williams is still an unknown around the NFL. Everyone knows he is fast, and the Lions used his speed in jet sweeps last season, but I don’t believe everyone knows how much different Williams is looking this season. If Williams is able to beat you with his speed and now an expanded route tree, that is going to be hard to stop.
Last year, he only played NFC North rival Chicago Bears twice while playing just the Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings once. In the two years he has been in the league, the division hasn’t seen what he can do yet. Teams can think they can prepare for him, but with the absence of most of 2022 and some of 2023, Williams hasn’t gotten much notice for his performance so far in his NFL career.
Plenty of mouths to feed
The final reason Williams can break 1,000 receiving yards is the number of weapons this offense has. Amon-Ra St. Brown is the team’s No. 1 receiver and will get a lot of attention from opposing defenses, but that isn’t all. They also have a star tight end in Sam LaPorta, who can also gobble up some attention.
Don’t think that’s just it, though. The Lions have the best offensive line in the NFL, which gives their running backs plenty of chances to thrive and move the ball on the ground. It also helps when your running backs are as good as David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs. So, with a tremendous running duo, defenses can’t solely focus on stopping the passing game; they must also be ready for the ground game.
So, with many weapons on the offense, Williams has a chance to break out and have his best year yet. St. Brown has had two 1,000-yard seasons in his three years in the NFL, and he got over 1,500 yards last year. Williams will take some of that yardage from St. Brown, as well as LaPorta, and with the team not having a clear option at the wide receiver three option, he will have to produce early and often to make this thing a reality. Williams has to average 59 yards a game this season to achieve that, which seems very doable for him.