The Detroit Lions had to wait until Week 13 to get first-round receiver Jameson Williams on the field, as Williams was recovering from the torn ACL he suffered in the 2021 College Football Championship against Georgia. Williams had just eight snaps and no catches last Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars in a 40-14 win, but everybody in the organization had to be excited about what Williams could do with a bit more experienced.
After all, Williams’ college tape from Alabama showed a guy with the kind of skill set you see from a Tyreek Hill, which is to say, it’s a skill set you don’t see very often. That’s why the Lions were quite happy to take him with the 12th overall pick in the 2022 draft, knowing that his rookie season was going to be mostly a waste year.
Well, with 10:27 left in the first quarter of Sunday’s game against the Minnesota Vikings, Jared Goff found Williams for his first career catch. And thanks to Minnesota’s alleged pass defense, Williams had a lot more open space than he needed to turn that first career catch into a 41-yard touchdown.
Welcome to the NFL: Jameson Williams first career catch is a 41-yard TD. Ford Field is rocking. pic.twitter.com/iyLtW5ofon
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) December 11, 2022
The dots show that the Vikings were playing a Cover-0 pre-snap look, with cornerback Patrick Peterson (No. 7) and safety Cameron Bynum (No. 24) dropping into coverage post-snap. Cornerback Cameron Dantzler (No. 3) drifted off to the numbers, and away from Williams… and we’re not quite sure what the plan was there. In any event, both Peterson and Bynum sat underneath, leaving Williams wiiiiiiiide open over the middle.
Jameson Williams first NFL touchdown dots!!@NextGenStats pic.twitter.com/ZVRGkz3go6
— Seth Walder (@SethWalder) December 11, 2022
“I mean, shoot — he hadn’t put on pads and gone through even pregame warm ups, and so a lot of that was just getting your bearings and now that you got that under your belt, we can progress forward from there,” Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson said of Williams this week. “So… it’s a good starting point for him. I don’t even think he was very pleased with his play, but that’s good. That’s a starting point and just like every player, we’re looking to get a little bit better each week.”
With help from the Vikings, Williams took one giant step forward for his offense.
