Burning Question: Why Lions Still Want to Use Jameson Williams as Gunner?
The Detroit Lions' plan to increase the workload of rookie wide receiver Jameson Williams against the Minnesota Vikings.
In his NFL debut, Detroit's No. 12 overall pick in this year's draft saw a total of eight snaps.
He was targeted just once in the passing game, but could not connect with quarterback Jared Goff down the sideline.
"We just wanted to get him out there," Campbell told 97.1 The Ticket Tuesday morning during his weekly appearance. "We wanted him to go through a pregame warm-up, be on the sideline, go line up, go fight with somebody a little bit, go run a route, see if you can connect, go block somebody and just be in it.
"Be part of it, pads on, all of that," Campbell continued. "Moving forward, it’ll be, 'OK, we’ll get him a little more involved now,' so we’ll have some things for him. He’ll play more than he did last week, but there again, it's just, let’s slowly start to implement him into what we’re doing and see how he handles everything."
Campbell and the team sent reverberating shockwaves through the NFL, when it was reported by Fox Sports NFL insider Jay Glazer the plan was to primarily use Williams as a special teams gunner against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
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The course of action changed, as the Lions did not punt on one single occasion in Week 13 at Ford Field.
"Maybe that’s all he does, maybe he’s just a gunner. Let me tell you something, have you ever seen his gunner reps? Check ‘em out," Campbell lightheartedly explained. "But, we’ll see. I’ll tell you this, he’s a football player. He’s tough, he’s competitive and he’s not worried about breaking nails. He just wants to play. He’s obviously going to get more reps on offense, and we’ll take him where he can go."
Prior to the start of the season, Detroit general manager Brad Holmes told reporters the speedy wideout possessed a vast array of skills, including the ability to contribute on special teams early in his career.
"Just because of his skillset, he’ll have a lot of versatility for us. So, if he’s not a full-time wide receiver, does he play special teams? Well, he’s got some damn good gunner tape out there in the SEC," Holmes expressed. "He’s got some good return tape out there in the SEC, so we’ll have some options."
