Antwaan Randle El never had the eyes on him that Jameson Williams does in Detroit, where the former 12th overall pick will begin the most important season of his football career by serving a six-game suspension for gambling.
But Randle El can relate to some of the pressure that Williams is facing. The Lions receivers coach was a second-round pick in 2002 who joined a team with Super Bowl aspirations. He helped the Steelers win their division as a rookie and win the Super Bowl three years later without ever missing a game over four years in Pittsburgh.
By the time he's eligible to play this season, Williams will have missed 17 of his first 23 games in Detroit -- but not for lack of desire.
"Yeah, I don't have to motivate him much when it comes to ball," Randle El said this week as the Lions wrapped up OTA's. "He loves the game and wants to be better and works at it. But the encouragement part, with all that's going on, the injury and obviously now with the suspension, it's just, 'Hey, keep doing what you're doing. Stay at it, in terms of working hard. This is just another stumbling block that, again, you'll come out stronger on the other side.'"
Williams, 22, played in just six games last season after recovering from a torn ACL he suffered at Alabama. He flashed on a few big plays, but failed to make much of an impact. Then he made headlines this offseason for his activity on social media -- mostly for liking a tweet that said the Lions should trade for Lamar Jackson -- and for his violation of the NFL's gambling policy. Questions were raised about his character and maturity. Williams will ultimately answer them on the field.
In the meantime, Randle El wants Williams to stay true to himself and trust the people around him.
"From the whole character deal, man, you gotta be who you're going to be. You really gotta silence the noise of the media people, for sure, because if you spit the wrong way, they're gonna write about it. But that's just part of it. He understands that and he's getting better at that. It's like, 'Hey, that doesn't matter. Just trust us, lean on us for some of that understanding.' It's helping him and he's coming along. And glad he's coming along, because we're going to need him," said Randle El.
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Williams has game-breaking speed. The one pass he caught last season went for a 41-yard touchdown, and he caught another for a 66-yard touchdown that was wiped out by a penalty. The one handoff he got went for a 40-yard gain. But his hands sometimes betray him. He had more drops (2) last season than catches and failed to secure a handful of catchable passes in practices this spring, including a perfectly-thrown deep ball that hit him in the hands and fell to the grass at the goal line.
It's not getting open that gives Williams trouble. It's consistently coming down with the catch, especially in traffic. He also had six drops in his lone season at Alabama. Randle El, who caught 370 passes over eight years in the NFL, was drilling Williams on proper catching techniques before, during and after every practice this spring and will continue to do so, with added wrinkles, in training camp.
"At the end of the day, it's the intent of it, like, how am I catching it in certain situations? That's what it comes down to," said Randle El. "But he knows how to catch the ball."
For Williams, it's about homing in on the details, like where to catch the ball and tuck it in relation to the defender and which arm to put it in, said Randle El.
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"Been working on it, like I said, before and after practice. And then when we start training camp, we still have some other things that help all our guys out," said Randle El. "The things we do, we don't just do them for one guy. It's like, man, we've got these drills that I know work and they've been helping our guys out."
Williams did have a strong finish to spring practices, particularly his timing on his routes: "You can see he's getting it," said Randle El. Every rep for him this summer will be crucial as he tries to make up for missed time with Jared Goff and put himself in position to hit the ground running when he returns to the team in Week 7.
He's always had a mind for the game, something he proved to Randle El when he was limited to mental reps for most of last season. Now that Williams is getting physical reps, Randle El said he's finding his place in the offense: "He's starting to see it more and more, which is good."
This season, the Lions hope to see more and more of Williams.
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