Coach Dan Campbell said Thursday that Williams is "a man on a mission" and has made notable improvements this offseason, Eric Woodyard of ESPN.com reports. Williams hasn't yet lived up to his 12th overall draft capital from back in 2022, but he's also faced unique hurdles to begin his NFL career. His big-play ability is undeniable, as is the opportunity for a third playmaker to emerge in Detroit's passing game behind standouts Amon-Ra St. Brown and Sam LaPorta, though plenty of targets should be distributed to running backs Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery. Potential for a year-three breakout is still there, but it depends on Williams truly logging an impressive offseason and earning consistent targets in a crowded offense.
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Status
ACTIVELatest Jameson Williams news
Team
Detroit Lions
Birthdate
3/26/2001 (23)
Status
Active
HT/WT
6'1", 180 lbs
Draft Info
2022: Rd 1; Pk (DET)
Birthplace
St. Louis, MO, USA
Position
WR
College
Alabama
Experience
3 seasons
Career History
Detroit Lions
2022-Present
(2 seasons)
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Coach Dan Campbell said Thursday that Williams is "a man on a mission" and has made notable improvements this offseason, Eric Woodyard of ESPN.com reports. Williams hasn't yet lived up to his 12th overall draft capital from back in 2022, but he's also faced unique hurdles to begin his NFL career. His big-play ability is undeniable, as is the opportunity for a third playmaker to emerge in Detroit's passing game behind standouts Amon-Ra St. Brown and Sam LaPorta, though plenty of targets should be distributed to running backs Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery. Potential for a year-three breakout is still there, but it depends on Williams truly logging an impressive offseason and earning consistent targets in a crowded offense.
Williams is part of a WR room that didn't add any new bodies during the 2024 NFL Draft. It's a subtle vote of confidence in the 12th overall pick from the 2022 NFL Draft, as Detroit's roster otherwise has a slew of fourth-receiver types behind Williams and Amon-Ra St. Brown, namely Kalif Raymond, Donovan Peoples-Jones, Antoine Green and Tre'Quan Smith. The No. 2 receiver spot may not be a high-volume task in an offense with ARSB, TE Sam LaPorta and an excellent RB duo, but it's nonetheless a positive sign for Williams that the Lions didn't prioritize adding competition for him this offseason. While he made a bunch of big plays down the stretch last season, Williams has played only 522 regular-season snaps on offense to this point in his career and has never caught more than five passes in a game.
Head coach Dan Campbell indicated that Williams is set for an increased role in 2024, Tim Twentyman of the Lions' official site reports. "[Williams] is going to push to be a full-time starter and that's what we're looking for. Everybody grows at a different rate. Maybe it's taken him a little bit longer, but he is developing and growing. The kid has come on. We got high hopes for him and see him continuing to grow," Campbell said Tuesday at the NFL Scouting Combine. Williams technically became a starter in Week 7 of last season, but he never topped 70 percent of the offensive snaps in a single game until Detroit's season-ending loss to the 49ers in the playoffs. The 2022 first-round pick also saw just 3.5 targets per game after joining the starting unit. Given that the likes of Josh Reynolds and DJ Chark have regularly topped 80 percent of the offensive snaps while serving as the No. 2 wideout behind Amon-Ra St. Brown in recent years, Williams at least has considerable room to grow from a playing-time standpoint, especially with Reynolds set to become an unrestricted free agent. However, neither Reynolds or Chark saw more than 4.7 targets per game in a season with Detroit, and none of the top-36 wide receivers in per-game half-PPR scoring saw less than 5.6 targets per game in 2023. With St. Brown and Sam LaPorta presumably the centerpieces for the passing game of a run-first Lions offense, Williams may need to rely upon touchdowns and explosive plays to pay off as a difference-making fantasy asset in 2024.
While Williams' 58 percent snap share is a downturn from the career-high 68 percent he saw last week, he set a new career high with 49 offensive snaps on a day the Lions ran 84 offensive plays. That figure matched No. 2 wide receiver Josh Reynolds, who had consistently been seeing around three quarters of the offensive snaps when healthy this year, though Kalif Raymond and Donovan Peoples-Jones saw added snaps as well. However, even though the recent increase in playing time has been a positive development for Williams, he'll likely need to evolve into the clear No. 2 wide receiver behind Amon-Ra St. Brown in order to gain fantasy relevance in a passing game otherwise headed by tight end Sam LaPorta and running back Jahmyr Gibbs.