Jameson Williams News

Though he went without any official receptions in the regular-season finale, Williams provided a glimpse of his vast potential on what would have been a 66-yard touchdown reception in the second quarter that was ultimately wiped out by a holding penalty. On the play in question, Williams found an opening in the defense behind Packers safety Darnell Savage, then jetted past Green Bay safety Adrian Amos on his way to what would have been his second career touchdown and third 40-plus-yard play. After the rookie first-round pick was cleared to make his season debut Week 13 upon completing his recovery from an ACL tear suffered this past January, Williams played less than a quarter of the snaps on offense in each of his six appearances while hauling in just one of his nine targets. Despite Williams' light use coming off the knee injury, general manager Brad Holmes said Tuesday that he maintains high expectations for the No. 12 overall pick of the 2022 NFL Draft heading into Year 2, per John Maakaron of SI.com reports. However, with Amon-Ra St. Brown, Josh Reynolds and Kalif Raymond all under contract for 2023 and with DJ Chark expected to work toward a new deal with Detroit, Williams will likely have to work his way up the depth chart in OTAs and training camp in order to claim a top-three role at receiver entering his second season.

Williams broke loose for a long rushing gain but otherwise remained a fringe contributor to the Lions offense. Don't count on the promising rookie for fantasy production when Detroit travels to Green Bay in Week 18.

Williams again logged less than 20 percent of the snaps with Detroit seemingly keen on not putting too much on his plate early on in his career. With this unlikely to change over the final two games of the season, the Alabama product will remain off the fantasy radar in Week 17 against Chicago.

The Lions simply don't seem willing to put too much on Williams' plate early on in his career. Not only did the explosive rookie again run behind a clear top trio of Amon-Ra St. Brown, DJ Chark and Josh Reynolds, but Williams has yet to overtake Kalif Raymond for the No. 4 role, either. It is entirely possible that fantasy managers will have to wait until next season before Williams can be counted on for statistical production.

Williams looked like he could be in line for a big day after getting wide open for a long touchdown early on, but he ended up logging just 19 percent of the offensive snaps after seeing 11 percent in his professional debut last week. Meanwhile, Josh Reynolds (60 percent) remained the clear No. 3 option behind Amon-Ra St. Brown (87) and DJ Chark (85). While Williams could continue pushing Reynolds for a larger role down the stretch, Williams currently seems unlikely to be seeing enough playing time to be a reliable fantasy option.

After talk of Williams potentially seeing time on special teams in his professional debut, the rookie was contained to just eight snaps on offense. Meanwhile, Amon-Ra St. Brown and DJ Chark each had their way with the Jaguars secondary in the blowout victory, giving the Lions no reason to rush Williams into heavy snaps. With that said, there is no denying the dynamic element that Williams could bring to the table as a third receiver in Detroit's offense, so look for Williams' role to only grow as the season goes on. Next up is a Week 14 matchup with a beatable Vikings secondary.