Jameson Williams, a wide receiver for the Detroit Lions, got his fifth-year rookie deal exercised by the Detroit Lions on Draft day. This means that after his fourth year, he will at least play one more year. This should be relieving to many Lions fans after the pile of rumors about Williams getting traded.
Williams has only been with the Lions for a handful of years, 3 to be exact. In this time, he has faced multiple obstacles on the field and off the field. To begin, the Lions signed him as an injured player. In a national championship game vs Georgia, the Alabama receiver tore his ACL while making a catch. It left him out for months after he was drafted, but he was finally able to make his return in an explosive way. His first ever catch in the NFL was a 41-yard touchdown vs the Vikings in the Lions’ 34-23 win back in 2022. From this point on, fans knew it wasn’t a wasted draft pick and he would be something special for the team.
That would be his one and only catch that year, and the Lions would end the season 9-8 and hope for better next season. The season after, he was suspended for a few games for gambling and had some minor health issues, but in 12 games played that year, excluding his impressive playoff performance, he only had 24 receptions with almost 400 yards and 2 touchdowns. The Lions finished short that year in the NFC championship after blowing a lead, while Jamo had a 2 touchdown game. The recent year is when he really shone. With 15 games played last year, Jamo managed to catch the ball 58 times and rack up 1,001 yards with 7 touchdowns.
Jameson Williams, being a young, improving wide receiver, still has some maturity issues, however. He had been fined and penalized a handful of times for unnecessary actions and celebrations, and got in trouble a few times off the field, including an issue with a gun, and gambling, along with a short suspension this year because of a bad drug test. On top of that, he has had issues with actually catching the ball, but he has improved. On 142 targets in 3 years, he has only caught the ball 83 times. Though Jared Goff, the QB for the Lions, has made some bad throws, this still leaves Jamo at a catch percentage of 58%, which is not the best. If Williams caught the 59 balls he couldn’t catch, he would have 2387 total regular season yards vs his 1396.
With the rumors being totally debunked by not only the NFL draft but GM Brad Holmes himself, the chance of Williams being re-signed after his fifth-year exercise is decently high. Williams, who has looked average on paper, has been a fan favorite and a great player in times of needed clutch. In many people’s opinions, the Lions should not allow Jamo to walk. He has shown great promise, and with some maturity growth and skill building, he could be a 1.5k yard receiver in his next few seasons.
https://www.espn.com/nfl/player/_/id/4426388/jameson-williams
