In their most recent game, the Detroit Lions defeated the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 24-9 on Oct. 20. But even after a victory, Lions wide receiver Jameson Williams’ Instagram story featured the famous Crying Jordan meme in a football uniform.
If the former Alabama All-American was sad or frustrated, Detroit wide-receivers coach Scottie Montgomery didn’t blame him.
Against Tampa Bay, Williams had no receptions on two targets by quarterback Jared Goff. Two weeks before that, in a 37-24 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals, he caught the only pass thrown to him for a 9-yard gain. That had followed three consecutive games with two catches in each for Williams, although in the 52-21 victory over the Chicago Bears on Sept. 14, the two receptions went for 108 yards.
“If he wasn’t a little bit onery right now, it would just signal complacency to me,” Montgomery said. “He hasn’t shown anything in the building or anything on the sideline, which if we were in a different year, this probably would have happened four or 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. …
“But we got to get to a point where we’re not talking about potential. We’re talking about more production, and we’ll get there.”
In his third NFL season, Williams broke out with 58 receptions for 1,001 yards with seven touchdowns in 15 regular-season games in 2024. Seven games into the 2025 campaign, Williams has 17 receptions for 289 yards and two touchdowns.
“We want to win the game, we want to score points, and I think that’s the primary for everybody,” Goff said, “but, of course, yeah, we’d love to get him involved more and get him the rock and in a million different ways. And he’s explosive. I know defenses are worried about him at all times, and we need to find ways to continue to keep him involved.”
After leading the NFL in scoring last season, the Lions rank third this season with an average of 30.7 points per game. But Detroit’s third-down conversion rate of 37.65 percent is 22nd in the league in 2025 after the Lions were fourth-best in 2024 at 46.98 percent.
“He’s got to get more opportunities,” Montgomery said of Williams. “We’re working on doing that and how you get those opportunities. And it’s directly connected also to our third-down production. Third-down production, what it means for receivers are more opportunities. What it means for backs are more opportunities, extending those drives. But our third-down opportunities, giving them opportunities to be catch and run. …
“In the games that we’re playing well, you’ll see -- I think we had one game almost at 170 yards of run after catch. And then the games where we haven’t done -- we maybe won the game, but we just haven’t hit the standard and expectations that we have for ourselves, our run after catch hadn’t been that great.
“So we got to sharpen him up on a couple of things in his toolbox, but there’s also other opportunities I don’t want to talk about, but we can put him in better positions.”
Goff has thrown to Williams 11 times on third down in 2025. Williams has six receptions for 117 yards, four first downs and two touchdowns. Williams also has 126 yards after the catch this season.
At 5-2 coming out of its bye week, Detroit resumes its season against the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday. Minnesota has been a tough matchup for Williams. In four games against the NFC North rival, Williams has 13 receptions for 114 yards and one touchdown.
The Alabama Games of the Week are the Denver Broncos-Houston Texans and Seattle Seahawks-Washington Commanders contests on Sunday. In each game, the teams’ active rosters include 13 players from Alabama high schools and colleges.
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The Week 9 schedule (with all times Central and point spreads from BetMGM):
Thursday
Baltimore Ravens (-7.5) at Miami Dolphins, 7:15 p.m. (Prime Video)
Sunday
Chicago Bears (-3) at Cincinnati Bengals, noon
Minnesota Vikings at Detroit Lions (-8.5), noon (WBRC, WZDX, WCOV, WDFX)
Carolina Panthers at Green Bay Packers (-13.5), noon
Denver Broncos at Houston Texans (-1.5), noon
Atlanta Falcons at New England Patriots (-5.5), noon (WIAT, WTVY, WKRG, WAKA)
San Francisco 49ers (-2.5) at New York Giants, noon
Indianapolis Colts (-3) at Pittsburgh Steelers, noon
Los Angeles Chargers (-9.5) at Tennessee Titans, noon (WHNT)
New Orleans Saints at Los Angeles Rams (-14), 3:05 p.m. (WALA)
Jacksonville Jaguars (-3) at Las Vegas Raiders, 3:05 p.m.
Kansas City Chiefs (-2) at Buffalo Bills, 3:25 p.m. (WIAT, WTVY, WHNT, WKRG, WAKA)
Seattle Seahawks (-3) at Washington Commanders, 7:20 p.m. (NBC)
Monday
Arizona Cardinals at Dallas Cowboys (-2.5), 7:15 p.m. (ABC, ESPN)
The Cleveland Browns, New York Jets, Philadelphia Eagles and Tampa Bay Buccaneers do not play in Week 9.
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