Ben Johnson has a problem, and can't cure it. When he has a chance to get Jameson Williams the ball in space, he throws judgement to the wind. On the Lions' opening drive of the second half in their rout of the Jags last week, Johnson called a slant to Williams that he knows he shouldn't have based on Jacksonville's defense.
"I’ve got this bad habit right now of calling that particular pass concept into cover-2," Johnson said Thursday. "It’s usually a dead play when I do that, and he makes it work."
Williams shook a linebacker at the top of his route and Jared Goff hit him in stride at the Jags' 45-yard line. Six seconds later, Williams was in the end zone and the Lions were leading 35-6. When Johnson later told Williams on the sideline that the play should have been killed in favor of a run, Williams smiled wide and said, "Who cares?"
"We still made a big play," he said. "I feel like he knows what his skill guys can do when they get the ball, so it just shows the trust and confidence he has in me."
"I feel like any play to me can work," Williams said Thursday. "(Goff) actually told me the same thing, he was supposed to kill the play to a run, but he saw the linebacker turn back around with me. He still put it to where I could run past him, perfect pass, I could just run and catch it and keep going. So, it’s good. Sometimes you might be in the wrong situation, but the play might work still."
This is the power of speed. Johnson calls Williams and running back Jahmyr Gibbs two of the Lions' "erasers" on offense: "They’re fixers. If things aren’t quite right, they make it right. He is certainly giving us that element in the passing game, and I think defenses take notice of that.”
Asked which of the two is faster, Johnson smiled and said, “Depends on who you ask. I know where I put my money, but I’m not going to say that publicly.”
"I know I'm faster," Williams said with a grin. "Any race."
While speed is the main component of erasing a poorly-called play, Johnson said that Williams and Gibbs also have "great instincts of how to make people miss in the open field, and I think you find defenders take poor angles when trying to bring them down in space" because of that.
"That’s a great element that they bring to the table, no doubt," said Johnson.
Eight games into his breakout season, Williams ranks second in the NFL in yards per catch (22.4). Only Alec Pierce (22.7) of the Colts has been more explosive. While Williams said "that stat doesn't really matter to me, I just look at it like, big plays." That's the essence of his value to the top-ranked scoring offense in the league.
The 23-year-old Williams says he isn't even close to realizing his full potential in the NFL: "I don't know when that will happen, but right now, for sure, nah. I feel like there’s a lot more plays to be made on the field for me, even in the run game, not just passing. So, nah to that question. Got a lot of room to grow on the field and a lot more spaces to be better."
That said, Williams has already grown a lot this season. He points specifically to "the simple details within the offense, the splits, the blocking assignments, the timing with the quarterback. All those little things matter in this offense."
And his improved connection with Goff is still on the come.
"We work after practice, we still do, we worked in the summer time, the spring time, after the season, so it’s all just coming together," said Williams. "He puts the ball in the right spot, I just gotta finish the route, get to where the ball at, catch it and make a play."