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Lions WR Jameson Williams managed just 2 receptions for 40 yards in Sunday's win over the Browns. That marked the third straight game in which Williams caught just two passes. And the game before produced a 4-23 receiving line. But Williams drew a season-high eight targets against Cleveland. That led the team for the first time this year and accounted for 29.6% of Jared Goff's total pass attempts. Amon-Ra St. Brown led the team in the rest of the receiving categories, posting a 7-70-2 receiving line on seven targets. Kalif Raymond drew the only other three WR targets, catching two for 13 yards. Isaac TeSlaa ran a third as many routes and drew no targets.
Goff after the game: "We would love to go to [Williams] as much as possible. He's as good a player as there is in this league, so I don't think this game was something different. He was open on some [of the plays]; he was covered on some of them. I made a poor decision on an interception. ... I thought Jamo did fine."
Goff added that he wasn't worried about Williams potentially getting discouraged by the performance.
We'll have to see what we should take away from this game. Williams hasn't had a playing-time issue at any point this season. He did have a target-share problem through the first three games.
Did Detroit work to solve that against Cleveland? Or was this the outlier? And even if the target boost was purposeful, will the lack of return on that investment alter the plan going forward?
The answer's probably somewhere in the middle.
Williams won't come close to a 30% target share most weeks, and might not again this season. But Detroit's also not giving their 24-year-old wideout an $80 million extension to target him 12.6% of the time, as Goff did across the first three weeks.
A Week 5 visit to Cincinnati presents an opportunity for Williams to rebound in a positive matchup. The two games that follow feature defenses -- Kansas City and Tampa Bay -- that have played the run tougher than the pass so far this season.
Williams remains a difficult start given his lack of production through September. But the upside keeps him in consideration as a WR3 for Week 5.
If he doesn't deliver against the Bengals, then don't be surprised to see Williams fall down our rankings the following week.
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