Once it became clear Jameson Williams was going to make his NFL debut last week, Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell went to special teams coordinator Dave Fipp and asked if Williams could be of any help as a gunner on the punt team.
“I said, ‘Oh, he’ll help us,'” Fipp said Thursday.
Then Campbell asked if Fipp had enough time to get Williams ready for that role.
“Oh, we’ll get him ready,” Fipp told Campbell.
Fipp asked Williams if he was comfortable playing gunner in his first NFL game, and when the rookie receiver said yes, the Lions eagerly made plans to use Williams on special teams — to the surprise of some observers who questioned the logic of playing a first-round pick 11 months removed from a torn ACL in the kick game.
The Lions so thoroughly dominated the Jacksonville Jaguars in their 40-14 win last week, scoring on every offensive possession that did not end in a kneel-down, that Williams never played a down at gunner. But with five games left in the regular season, that’s a role he could have going forward.
The NFL has overhauled some aspects of the kicking game in recent years to try to lessen the injury rate on special teams plays, though research by Sports Info Solutions shows kickoff and punt plays still produce higher rates of knee and head injuries than other types of plays.
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On Thursday, Fipp dismissed concerns the Lions were unnecessarily putting Williams in harm’s way by planning to use him as a gunner, saying, “We’re trying to win a football game and play whoever we think could impact that.”
“You can’t paralyze yourself with the fear of a guy getting injured because I think if you do that, at some point, you’re going to stop practicing, you’re going to stop doing that drill and then the first time someone gets hurt in the next drill you’re going to stop doing that drill,” Fipp said. “It’s like, you just can’t do that and be a good football team. I think you’ve got to make calculated decisions.”
Beyond the Lions’ desire to win football games, Fipp said the decision to use Williams at gunner was about Williams’ drive to be on the field and the success he had in the kick game in college.
Williams was a standout special teams contributor during his one season at Alabama and played primarily on special teams in two seasons at Ohio State. He averaged 35.2 yards on 10 kick returns last season for the Tide, had two return touchdowns in a game against Southern Miss and played as a gunner on Alabama’s punt team.
Lions general manager Brad Holmes was so impressed with Williams’ play as a gunner that he cited a targeting penalty Williams received against Auburn as one of the plays that separated Williams from other receivers in the draft.
“I think it just comes down to the individual,” Fipp said. “And I would say he’s different, man. This guy was playing football and if that’s his way to contribute in a game he’s willing to do it.”
Given his skill set Williams could have an immediate impact at gunner.
Williams is one of the Lions’ fastest players, and Fipp lauded his tenaciousness, too.
“I would say the No. 1 requirement for me if you want to be a great gunner, I would say is just sheer speed,” Fipp said. “You can give us a track guy on the outside and if a guy can run on that play, as long as the punter, which we have a great punter who can punt the ball down the field, as long as the punter can punt the ball down the field, if you just got a guy, he doesn’t have to stay on a track, stay on a line, break his route off at 10 yards or 15 and five steps and make sure he’s, whatever, at the top of the numbers at 20 yards. It doesn’t matter. Just run around the guy. If they put two on you, run around those two.
“And if you can just run everybody on the field and you get down there, and then the next question will be, can he tackle? Well, if you run fast enough, you just make the guy fair catch and you don’t have to tackle, so I would say if you can just really run, that’s a great start and then if you’re physical and competitive and love tackling, those would be the next things but just sheer speed’s hard to replace.”
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.