Heading into Week 9 against the Minnesota Vikings, Detroit Lions offensive coordinator John Morton acknowledged how he has "failed" wide receiver Jameson Williams. For his part, in the name of prioritizing winning games, Williams said he was not concerned about his target volume.
Williams had three catches for 29 yards until deep into the fourth quarter against the Vikings, as the pressure being put on Jared Goff rendered downfield passing moot. Then, with about two minutes left, Goff connected with Williams on a 37-yard touchdown that did nothing other than make a rough loss into a three-point setback for the Lions.
That late touchdown also took Williams from a dismal fantasy day to a finish as a top-20 fantasy wide receiver for the week regardless of scoring format. Even acknowledging that fantasy football is a bottom line business and any production is good production, contextual layers still matter and Williams was well on his way to his sixth single-digit fantasy outing of the season for about 58 minutes of game time.
Week 9 outcome does not change Jameson Williams' 2025 fantasy outlook
Even during his breakout season in 2024, Williams' fantasy managers could not count on him for week-to-week consistency. Looking deeper, his efficiency numbers looked very unsustainable.
In the fantasy section of his look at some potential Week 9 overreactions, ESPN's Dan Graziano mentioned what could be an assertion about Williams and tabbed it as an "overreaction" or "not an overreaction."
"You can trust Lions wide receiver Jameson Williams in your lineup moving forward."
"OVERREACTION."
"Hey, you knew what you were getting into when drafting Williams. He can get you 16.6 points like he did Sunday, but he can also get you zero like he did in Week 7, or two like he did in Week 5. If someone else wants to buy in, trade him. Otherwise, you're riding the roller coaster. There are too many mouths to feed in Detroit to expect week-to-week consistency from a player whose production is this volatile."
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Even if Morton was going to expand his route tree, fantasy managers who drafted Williams this year knew what they were getting into. The last three games, two games with 66 yards and a touchdown sandwiching a zero-catch, two-target outing, are a microcosm of that.
Skyler Carlin of FanDuel took the baton from Graziano to name Williams a sell-high candidate entering Week 10, while noting he has the third-highest target share (15.6 percent), the second-highest air yards share (34.4 percent), and fourth-highest yards per route run (1.45) among Lions' pass catchers.
Fantasy managers who simply avoided Williams in drafts, especially with an ADP that looked inflated, now look smarter than could've been expected then. But those who bought into the upside now have a clear-cut move to consider: Sell high, if you can, since the "roller coaster" is showing no signs of slowing down.