Jameson Williams Will See Heavy Preseason Reps, Drops Addressed
Jameson Williams has shown little more than flashes regarding his skill for the Detroit Lions.
When active, the Lions believe he has the potential to be one of the league's most explosive wideouts. Already this training camp, though, he's missed several days with a leg injury.
With an opportunity to get him in action during the preseason, coach Dan Campbell and company want to see what they make of the talented second-year receiver.
"It'll be imperative. We're gonna douse him with a ton of game reps, he needs that, as he does practice," Campbell explained Wednesday. "I'm telling you, as with anybody, the more reps he gets, the more time on task, the more consecutive reps he can put together, he'll just grow. I do believe he wants it, I do believe he wants to get better. He'll grind through this and let's see where we can go with it."
Technique has been an area of emphasis. He's been tasked with improving his route-running and pass-catching, as both could take him to an elite level.
Campbell and company are concentrated on helping the Alabama product improve in those areas, as they believe it could be the difference between him making it to an elite level of production.
With his superb level of speed, improving his route-running will go a long way toward creating separation with defenders. Meanwhile, fixing his hand mechanics will go a long way toward eliminating drops.
"Really, he's just gotta grind on it. Even then, it's not, it'll never be, probably, one of these elite pass catchers that you've seen," Campbell explained. "But it'll be just fine with his speed and what he's able to do, but there's a number of things he can clean up with it. I think it's just time on task, work through it, because honestly there are some things that just a simple change of the way your hands are by ball location that'll go a long way for him. We've just got to keep working through it."
In college, Williams was able to outrun defenders bay using his pure speed. That acceleration gap has closed at the professional level, though he remains among the fastest at his position in the league.
To maximize that speed, he must fine tune his ability to get in and out of breaks within his routes.
"He can run and he's been able to create so much separation where he came from that it wasn't as big of a deal," the third-year coach stated. "In this league, you get contested catches. But that's why I brought up the details of his routes. With his speed, the more he can really hone in on the details, his explosive speed, there'll be a level of separation different than most to where it's not always going to be these contested catches."
