Through seven games this season, Detroit Lions wide receiver Jameson Williams has not produced the numbers many were expecting. After hitting 1,000 yards last season and having his new offensive coordinator say he’s headed for another breakout year in 2025, Williams has just 17 catches for 289 yards and two touchdowns. That’s on pace for a 702-yard season, almost exactly 300 yards less than last year’s output. Not exactly ideal for a player the Lions gave a three-year, $83 million extension to just two months ago.
Both Williams and the Lions continue to preach optimism and patience. In his media sessions, Williams has insisted the lack of production doesn’t bother him as long as the wins come. The Lions continue to say that he changes the game in meaningful ways away from the ball, be it his downfield blocking or his ability to open up opportunities for other players by stretching the defense deep.
But on Tuesday, Lions receivers coach/assistant head coach Scottie Montgomery admitted he spent his bye week looking into Williams’ lack of production.
“It’s one of the things that I studied. Where he is in the progression, what happens when he is first, second, third in the progression, and it’s kind of been all over the place,” Montgomery said. “Either—the progression started and he’s open behind the first progression, or he’s second progression, and we don’t quite connect, or we do everything right, o-line, everything is right, and we don’t make the play down the field. So the combinations of all those things and, collectively, we just have got to get him more ops [opportunities]. He’s gotta get more opportunities. We’re working on doing that, and how you get those opportunities, right?”
It’s a bit of a break from the company line. Montgomery knows they need to get more production out of their star receiver, but admits there are a lot of things going on that have impacted their ability to get the ball in Williams’ hands.
There was some speculation that Williams is starting to get frustrated with his lack of involvement based on a couple of vague social media posts. But, even if that’s what’s happening, Montgomery believes the young receiver is handling it well—showing understandable eagerness to get the ball while also not letting his emotions impact his preparation and play.
“If he wasn’t a little bit ornery right now, it would just signal complacent to me,” Montgomery said. “He hasn’t shown anything in the building or anything on the sidelines, which—if we were in a different year—this probably would’ve happened four, five weeks ago. But I do think it speaks to his maturity, but he also understands that he is working and doing things the right way.”
Montgomery believes one way the Lions can get Williams more involved is with their third-down struggles. He believes Williams’ explosiveness could give the team some run-after-catch abilities that could help them convert on third downs, rather than just targeting past the first down sticks every time.
“Giving him an opportunity to catch and run. A lot of those (previous opportunities) have been past the sticks, and, as you go back and look at around the league and you go around and look back at the history of what we’ve done and some of the other places that you study, a lot of guys now—it’s a lot of catch and run,” Montgomery said.
“We do a good job of catch-and-run in the games that we’re playing well. I think we had one game where we had almost 170 yards or run after catch, and then the game where we haven’t done—we maybe won the game, but we just haven’t hit the standards and expectations that we have for ourselves—our run after catch hasn’t been that great. So we’ve got to sharpen him up on a couple of things in his toolbox. There’s also other opportunities that I don’t want to talk about, but we can put him in better positions. ”
Ultimately, it’s clear Montgomery is ready for Williams to break out once again.
“We’ve got to get to a point where we’re not talking about potential, we’re talking about more production,” Montgomery said. “And we’ll get there.”
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