Jameson Williams didn't have the season debut he was hoping for last week -- or maybe he did. He was all smiles in the locker room Thursday when he said, "We rollin'. That’s now three in a row, so we good. Trying to get four in a row."
As the Lions continue to win, Williams is one of the players who can make more noise. He was quiet in his return from his gambling suspension in the team's 42-24 romp of the Panthers. His play that echoes the loudest is the one he'd like to forget: on his first target of the season, Williams let a perfect pass from Jared Goff sail threw his hands.
"I ran the route, I just dropped the ball. I don't know what to say about that," Williams said, adding that he flushed the drop immediately. "You gotta think about what you got on (the next) play, so you can’t let that beat you up too bad. You might think about it after the game, but after that play it’s over."
Drops have dogged Williams through his stop-and-go start in Detroit. Simply put, he's put too many balls on the ground. In seven games with the Lions, he now has three drops and three catches. Jared Goff came to Williams' defense this week when he professed faith in the former 12th overall pick and said, "As long as he keeps getting himself open, I'm going to keep delivering him the ball. He’ll make those plays."
Williams, 22, said hearing that from Goff "means a lot to me, because everybody understands what he’s saying: one drop don’t define anybody."
"Everybody drops the ball. There’s not no receiver who ever played the game with no drops, they come and go. We just gotta keep building. That’s all it takes: a lot of balls, a lot of connections, a lot of reps and just go from there," Williams said.
To that end, Williams has been catching extra passes from Goff after practice, "making sure we got the timing right and how we're going to run it and where the ball should be," Williams said. One of the other challenges for Williams is working himself into a loaded offense that already ranks sixth in the NFL.
"We had weapons last year, but I would say the weapons (this year) are more advanced," he said. "We got Gibbs, St Brown, J-Rey, everybody can go out there and make plays, LaPorta the rookie. Goffy completes the passes, we do the catching and the running backs do the running."
Asked how he sees himself fitting in, Williams grinned and said, "Just maybe a couple catches, a couple touchdowns out there, but there’s nothing to it."
By all accounts, Williams had a great week of practice ahead of the Panthers game -- his best in Detroit, according to Goff. He wound up playing a career-high 28 snaps, turning three targets into two catches for two yards. Offensive coordinator Ben Johnson said Thursday that "the biggest issue with Jamo is we haven't been able to stack good days on top of each other" because of his various absences.
"I’m looking forward to him doing that again this week, because that’s the way you get better," said Johnson. "That’s the way you gain trust of the play-caller and the quarterback. The quarterback will play faster with more anticipation of where he’s going to be, and we’ll be able to give him more opportunities to catch the ball and be the playmaker that he’s capable of being."
Williams' blocking against the Panthers did warrant praise, especially when he threw aside a safety to help spring David Montgomery's 42-yard touchdown that gave the Lions the early lead. Johnson said that if Williams "blocks like that, there will be snaps for him every week."
"There’s no problem there. And then the challenge is, ‘Hey, how do we get him the ball?’" Johnson said. "And we’ll keep pushing it that way. But I have no problem with where he’s at right now and where he’s going.”
Nor does Williams, from the looks of it. The Lions are in first place and eyeing their fourth win in a row. Asked if he's thought about a touchdown celebration yet, Williams smiled, "Nah, I’m just working on my winning celebration. We winning, though! We winning."