Jameson Williams’ preseason appears to be over, and the talented Detroit Lions wide receiver likely won’t see the field again until late October.
Lions coach Dan Campbell said Williams will not play in Saturday’s preseason game against the Jacksonville Jaguars and is “unlikely” to play in next week’s exhibition finale against the Carolina Panthers because of the right hamstring injury he suffered Wednesday in practice.
“There’s a good chance it probably could go through the preseason,” Campbell said.
Williams injured his hamstring running a deep pass route in seven-on-seven drills in the Lions’ first joint practice against the Jaguars. He pulled up short on the route, grabbing the back of his leg, and after a few minutes on the sideline walked directly to the locker room with Lions trainers.
Williams missed five days at the start of camp with a left hamstring pull, and Wednesday’s injury is the latest setback in what’s been an inauspicious start to his NFL career.
The No. 12 pick in the 2022 draft, Williams missed the first 11 games last season while rehabbing from a college knee injury, caught one pass in six games upon his return, was suspended the first six games of this season for violating the NFL’s gambling policy and has battled drop problems when he’s been on the field.
With so much missed time — Williams will have missed 17 of his first 23 NFL games and can’t practice with the Lions during his suspension – Campbell has said training camp would be crucial to Williams’ development and ability to contribute in the second half of the season.
Asked how big of a setback Williams’ latest injury is in that regard, Campbell said, “as long as he stays on top of the mental portion of it you can get a lot out of the mental work.”
Williams is eligible to return for the Lions’ Oct. 22 game against the Baltimore Ravens. Campbell said the team is currently looking into whether he’s allowed to get team-supervised medical treatment during his suspension, when he’s required to stay out of the building for the first three weeks.
“He misses the reps,” Campbell said. “You kind of alluded to it, but that’s the chance to get full-speed, full-tilt reps. The timing of the pass game, lining up. All of it. The moving versus press, through the zones. It’s just time on task, so yeah, there’ll be a setback with it but it’s also, listen, you take it as it comes. I’m not going to sweat it. As long as he’s willing to continue to grind on the playbook and get it right, we’ll take it as it goes.”
While Amon-Ra St. Brown is expected to return next week from the ankle injury that caused him to leave practice early Wednesday, Campbell said the Lions will need to add in the coming days to a receiving room that’s been hit hard by injuries this summer.
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Of the 12 receivers currently in camp, veterans Kalif Raymond and Josh Reynolds and undrafted rookies Dylan Drummond and Chase Cota are the only four who have been around the entirety of camp and have not missed time with injuries.
Marvin Jones opened the summer on the non-football injury list with a back injury, but returned in late-July. Denzel Mims has missed most of the past week with an ankle injury. Trinity Benson returned to practice Wednesday with a sleeve on his right leg after missing nearly two weeks. Maurice Alexander has not practiced since last week’s preseason game against the New York Giants. Rookie Antoine Green missed time with heat exhaustion early in camp. And Avery Davis re-signed with the Lions on Monday after being cut last week.
The Lions also waived Tom Kennedy after he suffered a shoulder injury earlier this preseason.
Campbell sounded less than enthused about Mims’ recovery Thursday, saying “we’ll see” and “wish I could give you more” when asked for a timetable for his return.
But he said the rest of the preseason is a “great opportunity” for one or more of his young receivers to earn a roster spot behind St. Brown, Raymond, Reynolds and Jones.
“This room is wide open right now,” Campbell said. “I mean, we’ve got a pretty good feel of some of these guys, but we have a spot, potentially two, wide open. Wide open. Cota, you want it, go get it. Drummond, you want it, go get it. Who knows? Trinity Benson, we’re going to get him back out there a little bit today running around, so our eyes are wide open and we’re looking for guys and we have a track record in a three-year period here, it doesn’t matter where you’ve been drafted, who you are, what it is, you’ve got an opportunity. If you want to go earn it, go get it.”
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.