Allen Park — Jameson Williams is officially on his own.
The second-year Detroit Lions receiver, who received a six-game suspension for gambling back in April, has officially barred from the Lions’ facility since 4 p.m. on Tuesday, the deadline for teams to finalize their 53-man rosters.
Thus brought to an end a tumultuous offseason for Williams, who was slated to have every opportunity possible thrown his way during the preseason, but he only ended up playing in one game, after suffering a hamstring injury during joint practices with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
There’s no doubt that Lions general manager Brad Holmes would have liked to see things go differently over the last month, but he said Friday he ultimately isn’t concerned about Williams’ absence from the team. Though he’ll have to wait until Week 7 to make his season debut, he’ll be able to rejoin the team in Allen Park at the start of Week 4. In the meantime, Holmes cannot have any contact with the former first-rounder.
“(We had) good communication with Jameson and his agent before the deadline. Obviously, you can’t have any contact with him, but they have a good plan in place for him while he’s recovering from his injury,” Holmes said. “That six-week suspension sounds daunting when you say (it like) that, but after three weeks, he’s gonna be able to come back in the building and we can kind of re-acclimate him.”
Williams was forced to miss the entirety of last offseason while rehabbing from a torn ACL suffered in his final game at Alabama. This was supposed to be a huge offseason for him — “We’re going to douse him with reps,” head coach Dan Campbell said — to clean up all the basics, such as route-running and holding onto the football.
But Williams and backup quarterback Nate Sudfeld simply could not get on the same page, rendering the practice and preseason time together ineffective. The Lions brought in Teddy Bridgewater for competitive reasons, but there was a general consensus that his arrival would also do wonders for Williams. In Bridgewater’s first real practice with Detroit, Williams pulled up early because of a hamstring injury and hasn’t been healthy since.
Further complicating the issue is the fact that Williams cannot rehab his injury with team doctors until Week 4. Holmes said the organization communicated a rehab plan to Williams’ agent before the deadline.
“The expectation is for him to handle everything that the plan is set out to do,” Holmes said. “I have confidence that he will, and I have so much respect for the future, which is the unknown, and I don’t wanna say he’s gonna get this many catches or yards.
“But, we hope he has an impact for us.”
nbianchi@detroitnews.com
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