Lions HC Dan Campbell called WR Jameson Williams the team's most improved player this offseason. “We’re two practices in (to OTAs) and if you said, ‘Give me one player that is the most improved from that start to finish in that time,’ and Jamo would be that guy right now,” Campbell said. “He is a man on a mission, and I’m just going to leave it at that.” Campbell added that Williams' game has improved "everywhere."
Campbell isn't a coach who throws superlatives around loosely, so his praise of Williams' development is meaningful.
The 12th overall pick of the 2022 NFL Draft caught just one ball in six games as a rookie after tearing an ACL in his final college game. Then he opened last year serving a four-game suspension for gambling.
Williams flashed a bit over the second half of last season, though, totaling 22 catches for 344 yards and two TDs over his final 10 games (including playoffs). He notably played 66% of Detroit's offensive snaps in the postseason -- after reaching a 66% snap rate just once during the regular season.
The Lions let WR Josh Reynolds walk in free agency and didn't make any significant additions at the position, so they seem ready to give Williams every opportunity to win the No. 2 WR job.
We bumped Williams from a projected 13.2% target share to 14.0%. He drew just 9.5% of the Lions' targets over those final 10 games of last year -- but those games all came with Reynolds, who posted a 10.0% target share across those contests. There's room for Williams to see even more volume than he's now projected for.
The target share boost moved Williams from WR56 to WR52 in the PPR rankings. His 255-point ceiling projection would likely make him a top-15 WR.
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