No, Dan Campbell did not say that Jameson Williams won't be elite
The internet always seems to hear what it wants to hear. Especially if what it wants to hear is controversy and drama. That happened again on Wednesday when a quote from Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell got taken completely out of context. Here's the only part you likely saw today if you weren't paying […]
The internet always seems to hear what it wants to hear. Especially if what it wants to hear is controversy and drama. That happened again on Wednesday when a quote from Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell got taken completely out of context. Here's the only part you likely saw today if you weren't paying attention to the presser.
"It'll never be, probably like one of these elite pass catchers… but it'll be just fine."
If that's all you see of the conversation, then of course that looks pretty bad. It looks like a head coach is coming out and saying that one of his receivers will never be elite. It looks like he's confirming all of your fears that Jameson Williams is a bust. That's just not what's really happening though.
The discussion was about Jameson Williams struggling with drops and struggling with contested catches. What you don't see in the quote going around is the rest of the quote. Here's the full thing.
“Yeah, those do – they show up and that’s something that we’ve talked about with him, and he knows that too. I think man, working his hand mechanics. He has to work those pre-practice, he has to work those post-practice. I mean really, he just has to grind on it, and even then it’s not – it’ll never be probably be one of these elite pass-catchers that you’ve seen, but it’ll be just fine with his speed and what he’s able to do, but there’s a number of things that he can clean up with it and I think it’s just, man, time on task, work through it, because honestly there are some things that – just the simple change of the way your hands are by ball location, pinkie to pinkie, thumb to thumb, that’ll go a long way for him. And so, we just have to keep working through it. We just have to keep working through it.”
That's it there. Campbell isn't saying that Williams won't be elite, he's essentially saying that Williams probably won't be a sure handed receiver. That's fine. Most of the receivers in the NFL aren't sure handed. Even some of the elite ones. Campbell talked about how his speed and creating separation will help him. Williams probably won't be a top contested catch receiver and that's totally fine. He doesn't have to be with the skill set that he bring. Campbell talked a little more about that in the presser.
“Yeah, he just – he can run, and he’s been able to create so much separation where he came from that it was – that wasn’t as big of a deal, but in this League, you’re getting contested catches, but I think that’s why I brought up the details of his routes. With his speed, the more he can really hone in on the details, his explosive speed, man, there’ll be a level of separation, you’d like to believe, different than most to where it’s not always going to be these contested catches. So, there’s a little give and take there.”
Lastly, for the worriers, I know there are a lot of them, the drops haven't been that overwhelming. There have been some, but we're not talking Eric Ebron levels of drops here. Frankly, those were blown out of proportion too.
They've also been drops in the second week of practice for his entire NFL career. Williams missed the entirety of training camp last year and didn't play a game until Week 12. Even then, the Lions brought him a long slowly. He got targeted nine times all season and didn't really take part in practices to the level of the rest of the receivers. He basically took a year and change off.
I know there are some that just want to feel the pain now so they don't have to feel later if he winds up being bad, but again, there's really been no real reason to feel that he will be outside of people on the internet being upset that he eats food late at night during the offseason and listens to rap music. Yes, he got suspended, but he's explained himself and he's been nothing but a good teammate and a willing member of the franchise since then. You guys have to let this go at some point.
Featured image by Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK
