How Lions Can Easily Solve Jameson Williams Dilemma

Detroit Lions offense has things to correct after their bye week.

Detroit Lions wide receiver Jameson Williams (1) celebrates a touchdown against Kansas City Chiefs | Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Detroit Lions feature an offense chock-full of offensive weapons.

Through the first seven games, it is clear running back Jahmyr Gibbs and wideout Amon-Ra St. Brown are the stalwarts, garnering a significant amount of play calls and targets in John Morton's offense.

But where does that leave wideout Jameson Williams?

The former first-round pick also has game-changing abilities, but has found his usage decreasing slightly.

Detroit's offense is running slightly fewer plays this season and the number of attempted passes per game has decreased.

In the past, Williams would be targeted an average of six times per game. This season, that number has dipped to approximately 4.5 targets per game.

Teams are working diligently to take Williams away as an option. Many are clamoring for Williams to run a more diverse variety of routes, as his average depth of target is currently 17 yards per pass.

The easiest fix would be to get the football in Williams' hands more often, through a variety of different play calls, including short screens and handoffs (jet sweeps).

Jet Sweeps > Screen Passes pic.twitter.com/ER9ecJ7D72

— Shane Haff (@ShaneHaffNFL) January 28, 2025

Plays that have been ran successfully over the years, in a variety of offenses, have been the tunnel or slip screens. It is where the receiver is tasked with a route working outside-in rather than inside-out.

Dan Campbell indicated, when asked about the challenges getting everyone the football, a correction the offense must make is to be more effective on third-down.

“I would say this. This is all we’ve got to do is convert on a third down and then convert on another third down. We convert on a couple of these third downs, it either helps us for the next one, or we may not be in very many," said Campbell. "We’re back to first, second-down, back to first.

"We get a little bit better in third down, we tweak a couple of things, we set a couple of different players up, I think it’s going to go a long way for us. And so obviously the more first downs, the more plays, then the more opportunities for everybody that we have. And yes, we can do a better job. And we will.”

Campbell indicated the issues he is observing should be easily correctable. Reporters asked what issues he saw on film on third-down against the Buccaneers.

“Literally one thing here, one thing there. One guy here, one guy there. You’ve got 10 guys doing the right thing, and one guy either gets beat, or he’s doing the wrong thing. And it really just went, we just kind of passed it around a little bit. It’s all of us, literally. I’m talking about myself, the coaches, all of us. But there again, it’s correctable. It’s easily correctable," said Campbell. "That’s what a little bit of this bye will be too, man, looking at some of these things. What are things we do really well, and we can hang out hat on? But yes, we can.”

Defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard indicated Morton has done a phenomenal job managing the offense early in the season.

Sheppard indicated the offense would need to likely run 80 plays a game in order for everybody to be involved at the same level.

"When I hear things like that (Williams not being involved), I just would hope that not only the fans but the media, everybody understands the job that John Morton has been tasked with taking over that offense. And then let’s just congratulate him for the job that he’s done and not try to nitpick at things about, ‘Why isn’t this guy, why isn’t that guy getting the ball?’ He’s doing an incredible job," said Sheppard. "Right now I think we’re number one scoring in offense, which helps me as a defensive coordinator.”