Detroit Lions offensive coordinator John Morton said he has “failed” wide receiver Jameson Williams. Williams said he’s not mad about it.
But will that mean more opportunities for the former Alabama All-American when the Lions return from their bye week against the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday?
“I looked at everything as far as that,” Morton said about his work during the open date. “I’m going to do a better job with that, but there has been opportunities where it just didn’t happen. You know what I’m saying? It’s not like we ain’t going to try to target him, so that was the biggest thing. So I looked at everything, and I definitely failed him. That’s what I told him. You know what I mean? I have to do a better job with that. But it’s a two-way street. So we definitely looked at that.”
In Detroit’s last game before its bye, the Lions defeated the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 24-9 on Oct. 20, even though Williams had no receptions on two targets. 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.
“He came to me and expressed to me how he felt,” Williams said on Thursday. “But, you know, with me I really wasn’t taking it too far into thinking about it. We was winning games and things like that, so I could never get myself too worked up with me getting the ball or, you know, me getting targeted, things like that. I know it’s going to come. It’s a long season. We a team that make it into the playoffs, so I knew things like that was going to come. Me and him talked on the field yesterday before practice, and we just got to understanding how we going to move forward and that’s the best thing about it, I think. …
“It means a lot because he obviously sees it, and that’s just the main thing — acknowledging it. We went so long without acknowledging it, so, you know, acknowledgement, it was the best thing about that I think.”
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After Willams went without a catch, the Crying Jordan meme, but in a football uniform, appeared in his Instagram story.
“I’m not angry. I’m good,” Williams said. “… It was just Instagram, like, you know, just posting something. I used to post a lot of stuff and be coming up here and getting asked about every post I make. It was just a post, though. Wasn’t no meaning behind it or nothing. …
“The life we live is different from others, and others want to be in the spot we in, so, you know, we can never take it for granted or, you know, get too worked up on ourselves about mishaps or when things not going right. You just got to keep going till eventually it’s going to get right.”
Williams said there’s also no reason to get mad because “I know my time coming. I know it’s coming, so I’m ready whenever it comes.”
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.
“I see, like, more help over me,” Williams said of opposing defenses in 2025. “I see the way that they spread out their defense. Defenses try to take 14 (wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown) out the game, and they try to take my ability to go over the top out the game. That’s the main thing of what I’ve been seeing in the first half. So we got plans to attacking it, and we got a lot of players, so we never really worried about one person getting took out the game because we got other players to go make explosives and touchdowns and plays for us. So try to take one player out the game for us, like, I don’t think that’s a good plan.”
Detroit reached its bye week with a 5-2 record. The Lions have 10 games remaining on their regular-season schedule, starting with an NFC North contest against the 3-4 Minnesota Vikings at noon CST Sunday at Ford Field in Detroit.
“I think we had a bye week in the right spot,” Williams said. “Maybe like two, three years ago, I think we had this bye week in the same week. I think it’s the best because it’s right in the midseason. We get some Thursday nights, too, where we get like a little bit more rest. But that week right here, I think, it just refreshes us, and we come in for the second half and we just ready.
“The first half is just to see where everybody is at, but the second half is where you make your push for the trophy at the end.”
The Lions have three Thursday games remaining on their schedule. Detroit plays its traditional Thanksgiving game on Nov. 27 against the Green Bay Packers, faces the Dallas Cowboys on Dec. 4 and meets Minnesota again in a Christmas afternoon contest.
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