It hasn’t been a typical journey, and he’s had his bumps along the way, but it’s time to finally say it: Jameson Williams has arrived.
The third-year Detroit Lions receiver didn’t have much to his name after his first two years in the NFL. His first season, as expected, was mostly a redshirt thanks to a torn ACL suffered a few months prior to him getting drafted. His second year was mostly defined by early drops, his gambling suspension, and inconsistent chemistry with quarterback Jared Goff.
Going into 2024, there were several analysts who pointed out that a breakout season in Year 3 for a first-round wide receiver was relatively unprecedented. In today’s NFL, you typically know whether you have a keeper at wide receiver after two seasons. Williams, though, was a unique case—seeing as nearly half of his first two years were spent either injured or suspended.
Lo and behold, 2024 has been the year of Jameson Williams. The young receiver was never short on drive and motivation, so with actual time on task for nearly the entire season (with a two-game suspension causing yet more adversity), the 23-year-old receiver is on the verge of his first 1,000-yard season. Last week’s game against the Chicago Bears, in which he hauled him five catches for a career-high 143 yards pushed him just 110 yards short of the milestone with two games remaining.
“It was probably Jamo’s best game that he’s had since he’s been here,” coach Dan Campbell said this week. “And I’m talking about from run blocking as well as the pass game which everybody sees,”
And that’s the thing. Whenever anyone in the building talks about Williams, they’re quick to point out that his impact goes well beyond his 890 receiving yards (24th in NFL) and explosive play abilities (t-first in 50+ yard receptions with five). He’s truly adopted the Lions’ philosophy of “no block, no rock.”
“He does a lot for our offense,” Amon-Ra St. Brown said. “Whether it’s in the run game—I don’t know if you guys see it a lot, but he puts his head in there and he really makes key blocks for us. He’s not scared to block (or) go dig out a safety. So that’s huge.”
Coaches have also talked all year about the “Jameson effect”—the impact of having such a speedy, explosive weapon on the field, has on opposing defenses. Combine Williams’ ability to take the top off the defense with Detroit’s physical ground-and-pound running game, and that leaves opposing defenses in a pick-your-poision situation.
“I will say the Jameson effect is kind of starting to play out already,” offensive coordinator Ben Johnson said back in late September. “We hit a big play in the first game and a big play to him in the second game and last week, you could tell early in that game they weren’t going to allow him to get over the top. So, we’ll see if that trend continues. I think our combination of run game slash vertical threats is a little bit unique.”
None of this happens without Williams and Goff getting on the same page. Through those first two years, there were countless incidents of Goff overthrowing Williams or Williams not being at the landmark Goff was expecting. Those incidents are now few and far between, and the Lions quarterback credits Williams’ work ethic for hammering out those details.
“It’s really good what he’s done and being able to get better every week and improve and like you said, his maturity has grown and he pushes himself really hard, he really does,” Goff said this week. “And he holds himself to a high standard, and he wants to get better, and he wants to improve. He’s constantly communicating with me. It’s a lot of fun to work with him, and when he makes plays like that, you see all the work pay off and he’ll just continue to get better.”
On Monday night, Williams will have his opportunity to crack 1,000 yards on the field where his breakout truly began. In last year’s NFC Championship game against the San Francisco 49ers, Williams broke open the scoring with a 42-yard touchdown run and would add a late touchdown to give the Lions some late life. Heading back to San Francisco this week, the Lions have a chance to clinch the NFC’s top seed and get Williams to join the 1,000-yard club.
“He’s going to get to 1,000,” St. Brown said. “I know he is. He might get it this game.”
