Last season, Jameson Williams had the most drops in the NFL. This season, he's tied for the most drops in the NFL. He showed surer hands in training camp this summer, but it might just be that drops will always plague him.
But they can't cost the Lions like this.
Williams failed to secure two passes that him in the hands in last week's loss to the Panthers. Both would have gone for big gains. The first one, a perfect deep ball from Goff down the right sideline, likely would have gone for an 89-yard touchdown and given Detroit a 10-0 lead in the first quarter. Williams said Thursday that he lost it in the lights, but acknowledged: "That ain’t no excuse. I still gotta put my hands in the right spot for it."
When the ball landed harmlessly at Williams' feet, wide receivers coach Scottie Montgomery's pained reaction on the sideline said it at all. Montgomery spelled it out Wednesday and said, "That's a tracking issue, 100 percent."
"Yeah, you can lose it in the lights, but when it comes out of the lights you gotta find it and catch it, catch the dark spot (of the ball). But we have to make that play," Montgomery said. "It gives us the ability to go to the next level. Consistency in every play now is what we really have to work on."
Williams caught six of his eight targets against Carolina for 102 yards. It was a good day at the office. It could have been great. His other drop came on second and long early in the fourth quarter, with the Lions in Panthers' territory, trailing by 10. Goff evaded pressure and threw back across his body to Williams for what could have been a 20-yard gain. The pass was high, but Williams climbed the ladder, got both hands on it and couldn't bring it down. The Lions had to punt one play later.
Had he caught all eight of his targets, Williams might have had almost 200 yards and the Lions likely would have come home with a 3-1 record. Instead, they're 2-2 and Williams is lamenting his slow start to the season.
His performance through games, he said, is "not my best. If I would grade it myself, it’s probably one of my worst starts to my career."
"Every target he had in that game should have been a catch," Montgomery said. "We had a chance. If it hits you in the foot, finger tips, you jump up and it hits you, you gotta catch it. He understands that part of it. But that is exactly what I’m talking about: You can’t be boom or bust in this league. That is average. I have to find more ways to get him to the point where that is a normal play.
"The bigger deal is, when he’s in space, he’s not making as many plays as he should. And then when he’s in contested situations he’s making more. So I gotta do a better job of putting him in more space situations, whether that’s in practice or drills, and give him more opportunities to make sure that he gets to the top of the level that he can be at."
Williams looked smooth in training camp. He was snaring passes away from his body. He put a few on the ground like any receiver, but not as many as he had in the past. As Montgomery said Wednesday, Williams coming out of camp was at the top of his game. Then he dropped two passes in Week 1 against the Saints, one of which should have gone for 45-plus yards on another perfect deep shot from Goff. It hit Williams in stride, and bounced off his hands.
He has 17 drops over the last two seasons (12 last year, five this year), most in the NFL. The next closest player has 11.
"So we have to get him completely refocused on making wide-open catches and contested catches," Montgomery said. "He’s doing great in the run game, he’s doing some things that we really like to see. But we’re talking about greatness. We’re not just chasing, 'Hey, man, he’s a good player in this league.’ That’s not it. I’ve told him, ‘I want to be around the best,’ and I think he has an opportunity to do that if we can clean up some of the things we’re talking about."
To Williams, fixing the drops is simple: "Just catching the ball, bringing it in. It’s nothing major, it’s just drops. I just gotta catch the ball ... It’s a long game. With the drops you still can have an excellent game. My biggest thing is trying to minus those things, so I can just go out there and play free, don’t even worry about dropping the ball. Just focus on doing my job the best I could do."
As it is, Williams ranks among the top 20 receivers in the NFL this season in yards. Turn a couple of those drops into catches and he'd easily rank in the top 10, which is where he finished last season. He appreciates the tough love from Montgomery, "one of my best receivers coaches I’ve come across."
"He just instills greatness into you every day. In the meeting room, on the field, in walkthrough, he's always on you. He never lets you take no days, no plays off. He’s just on us. And that’s what he demands out of us. That’s why our room plays the way we play, because we gotta show how much we respect him and how much he does for us and how grateful we are for having him in our room," Williams said. "He's a great guy, been a great guy to me since he took over the receivers room (last season). I got nothing but love for Scottie."
The Lions rank ninth in the NFL in yards per play at 5.9. Again, had Williams secured a couple of those explosive plays he left on the field, they'd be comfortably in the top five. Offensive coordinator Drew Petzing said Thursday that the first thing he evaluates in Williams' performance is "effort, assignment, energy, and intensity. Those are the controllables. How hard do you play? Do you know what you're doing? Are you doing it as fast and as hard as you possibly can? And I think he's been great."
As for some of the drops, "he's bounced back and made some really big plays for us," Petzing said. "I laugh at the in-cut (against the Panthers) that he got his hands on. When that ball got thrown, I'm like, most of the league doesn't even touch that ball. He's the type of guy who has the ability to go up and get that. It's a play I expect him to make, he expects to make. But also, when it went out, I was like, ‘Woah,' so you’ve got to live with a little bit of that.
"He wants to be challenged in that area, but I'm pleased with where he is at. And I'm always going to say, 'Hey, can you give us more? Can you make more plays? Can you have a bigger role?' And I think he wants that.”
