It’s been a long hard road for Detroit Lions wide receiver Jameson Williams. He’s had the ACL injury, the gambling suspension, the drops, the hamstring and all the things that fans and media have had to say about him. Through it all the kid just kept smiling and working and doing everything he could to gain the Lions trust.
If you like watching the box score and nothing else, you’ll probably come away with the idea that Williams still hasn’t done much. But if you dig deeper, you’ll see that the kid is on his way to being the player the Lions thought he could be.
A month ago Lions’ offensive coordinator Ben Johnson said that “some guys take longer than others to develop a rapport with. We frankly aren’t there yet” when asked about the way the Lions were using Williams. He accompanied that statement by saying that time on task would help.
A month later and Jameson Williams has played more than ever in the last two games. Against the Chargers, Williams played 34 snaps. That was a career high until this past Sunday when he played 40 snaps against the Bears.
What Williams has done with this recent time on task is good. He’s out there picking up blocks and being a good teammate first. He’s been rewarded for doing so with some targets. He’s been reward for catching those targets with more opportunities to catch bigger targets. On Sunday he caught the biggest catch of his young career when the Lions targeted him late in the game and he came trough in the clutch.