Winston glad to be on the field
The Detroit Lions’ rookie minicamp this weekend gave wide receiver Jameson Williams the opportunity to do something he hadn’t since the CFP national championship game — put on cleats.
Williams sustained a torn anterior cruciate ligament in Alabama‘s 33-18 loss to Georgia on Jan. 10 in the final game of college football’s 2021 season. The injury did not prevent Detroit from adding Williams with the 12th choice on April 28 in the 87th NFL Draft.
“It feels real good just to be out here with some guys,” Williams said. “It’s football. It’s love. You know, football. … On the grass, you’re going to see a smile on my face, for sure.”
But getting on the grass is about the extent of what the Lions have allowed Williams to do this weekend.
“It’s tough,” Williams said on Saturday afternoon, “but it’s just the situation I’m in. We’re taking it slow. Been out here getting some good rehab with the trainers two or three times a day, so everything’s going good so far.”
Lions coach Dan Campbell said even though Williams can’t participate physically at rookie minicamp, that doesn’t mean the wide receiver can’t get something out of the event.
“He’s already asked about doing JUGS, so,” Campbell said on Saturday morning, “but no, he’s good. We got him watching right now. (Head athletic trainer) Kevin Bastin was with him a little bit yesterday — he and (tight end) James Mitchell both. They’re both coming off the ACLs. They’re out there. They’re watching. Once that’s over, we have them doing a couple of things just to assess where they’re at, but we don’t have them involved. That’s not the point. But mentally, they very much are involved. …
“He’s engaged. You put him out on the grass, that’s his domain, so he’s very much engaged. You ask him a question, he’s got the script, he’s on it. In meetings, he’s very engaged. He asks good questions, so for where he’s at and for what you want — I know we’re only one day in — but that’s what we’re asking out of he and James, for that matter. There’s the mental side of it, man. Be in tune, know what you need to know, listen to all the little details and then give it back to us, and he’s doing that.”
Williams said he’s trying to take advantage of what he’s able to do.
“We got offensive meetings and stuff like that,” Williams said. “Also I got the script every day, so I get to just walk around and see routes and everything, so everything’s looking real good. …
“The mental part is actually helping me get ready for the physical part, so when the physical part comes, it’s all go.”
When might that physical part come?
“I’m not even sure,” Williams said. “That’s up to the people inside the building in the training room.”
A timetable for Williams is not something about which the Lions wish to speculate.
Campbell said, “We’ll just take it as it comes,” and Detroit general manager Brad Holmes, during a Friday appearance on “The Rich Eisen Show,” said, “I do expect to see him at some point.”
“We had a lot of deep, internal discussions before the draft with our doctors and our medical staff,” Holmes elaborated. “We felt very, very comfortable taking him. We’re not going to put a specific timetable just out of respect of our process and the plan that we have in place. But we feel very comfortable and confident in terms of where we think that he might be available.
“What I love about Jameson is he loves football. He’s so passionate about the game, and he’s chomping at the bit to get out there as soon as possible. But we do have a plan in a place. We’re going to stick to it, and the last thing we’re going to do is just rush a player out there before he’s ready.”
Detroit traded the 32nd, 34th and 66th selections in this year’s draft to get the 12th and 46th picks from the Minnesota Vikings. The Lions moved up 20 spots in the first round to get Williams, although Holmes had some anxious moments when the New Orleans Saints traded with the Washington Commanders to make the 11th selection.
“That did cross my mind when the trade first happened,” Holmes said about the possibility of New Orleans drafting Williams. “When the Saints moved up, we were pretty much set. We had already had dialogue with (Vikings general manager) Kwesi (Adofo-Mensah) in Minnesota, and I said, ‘Look, I’m still waiting to see what happens here.’ But when the trade first happened with New Orleans … I heard a lot that they had some interest in Jameson throughout the process.”
The Saints did pick a wide receiver, but New Orleans took Ohio State’s Chris Olave, allowing Williams to join the Lions.
Amon-Ra St. Brown caught 90 passes for 912 yards and five touchdowns as a rookie to lead Detroit’s receivers in 2021. This offseason, the Lions added wide receiver DJ Chark in free agency. Chark was a 1,000-yard receiver and a Pro Bowl selection in 2019, but he played in only four games for the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2021 because of a fractured ankle.
In his only season at Alabama, Williams caught 79 passes for 1,572 yards and 15 touchdowns in 2021, when he also averaged 35.2 yards on 10 kickoff returns and ran back two for touchdowns.
Detroit has posted four consecutive losing seasons, gone five years in a row without a postseason appearance and most recently won a playoff game on Jan. 5, 1992.