Jameson Williams had six catches for 119 yards and one touchdown in Washington Sunday.
Jameson Williams had six catches for 119 yards and one touchdown in Washington Sunday.
Landover, Md. — Wide receiver Jameson Williams stepped to the podium a rejuvenated man Sunday night, having just pulled down six catches for 119 yards and a touchdown over the previous few hours at Northwestern Stadium in a 44-22 get-right win over the Washington Commanders.
It’d been eight weeks since he’d crossed the 100-yard threshold, something he’s now done just twice this season. It’d been nine weeks since he agreed to a three-year, $83 million contract extension. He’s answered questions weekly about the disappointment of not being involved, handled them with maturity, and kept chugging along.
Gritiron Gang: Lions stomp Commanders as Dan Campbell takes over play-calling duties
The Gritiron Gang: Richard Silva, Nolan Bianchi and John Niyo talk about the Lions win over the Commanders, and about Dan Campbell as play-caller for the day.
This, in a game that seemed to represent a fresh start for the whole operation, felt good.
“I’m the same player every day. It don’t matter if I’m getting the ball or not getting the ball. I’m the same player when I wake up,” Williams said. “I go into the meetings, practice, or when I wake up Sunday for the game, I try not to let [not getting the ball] affect me. I just go out there when my number is called.”
We’re only working off a one-game sample size with head coach Dan Campbell as the play caller in 2025, but if Sunday’s game told us anything, is that Williams stands to gain a ton from Campbell deciding to “mix it up,” as he said after the game.
The previous iteration of the 2025 Lions’ offense struggled to maximize Williams’ ability as a play-maker. He was the biggest loser of the post-Ben Johnson era through Week 9, and John Morton admitted as much when the team came back from the bye week, saying he told Williams he “failed” him.
Even in his 108-yard game against the Bears in Week 2, all of his activity came on just two catches. He’s very rarely been targeted like the true second option in an elite passing offense, instead primarily functioning as an expensive decoy — even if that wasn’t by design.
But on Sunday, the Lions got him going with crossing routes five to 15 yards beyond the line of scrimmage, allowing Williams to catch the ball with a full head of steam and let his best attribute, his speed, do the rest. Of Williams’ 119 yards, 57 of them came after the catch.
Lions quarterback Jared Goff said that Williams is a “cheat code” on crossing routes.
“He was incredible today. He was great. I loved that we just kept coming back to him and giving him more opps to get the ball,” Goff said. “He was locked in. He was really locked in all week at practice and has been all year, honestly. And to see him have a game where he pops like that is fun.”
Williams’ four catches against man coverage went for a combined 91 yards, according to Next Gen Stats.
“Going over the gameplan, how they tried to play us, a lot of man and match coverage. So, us getting open and running away from the DBs was definitely a part of the game,” Williams said. “So, you’ve got to perfect that. Especially when you get man, and they try to play back there.”
While some would expect a receiver of Williams’ caliber to be a distraction when things aren’t going his way, it’s actually been quite the opposite. One of the things that has drawn fans to Williams is the joy with which he plays the game. As it turns out, that applies to his head coach, too, as well as plenty of teammates.
“He loves ball and you can’t hide that. I mean, it’s not fake. You don’t fake that. I mean, it’s just unbridled enthusiasm. He loves the game, he loves to play, he loves to compete,” Campbell said.
“He loves it when his teammates make a play, he loves to block for his teammates, he loves to celebrate in the end zone with his guy. He’s over there, he says stuff to the O-line. I mean, he’s a great teammate, and he does, he delivers energy. He brings a lot of energy and it’s just good to see. … I think guys feed off of that.”
I can’t guarantee that Williams will look like that every game. I couldn’t even tell you what it’s going to look like next game. The biggest caveat of all of this is that the Lions’ big offensive outburst came against a Commanders team that had lost four in a row, including three straight by at least three scores, entering Sunday.
We’ll get a better idea of how often Williams will be involved when the team travels to Philadelphia for next week’s game against the Eagles. But as the Lions turn the page on the first half of their season, it’s hard not to be excited about the direction he’s headed.
▶ If Williams stands to gain the most from the new play-calling setup in Detroit, running backs Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery are a very close second. The Lions’ offensive line looked reborn, and with that, came Gibbs’ most efficient rushing performance of the season. He carried the ball 15 times for a season-high 142 yards (9.5 per carry) and scored three total touchdowns. Montgomery added 71 yards on 15 carries (4.7).
Detroit’s offensive line has been extremely inconsistent on a game-to-game basis and was arguably coming off its worst overall showing against Minnesota the week prior. On Sunday, Campbell said “you could just feel the line of scrimmage move” and added he “could have called anything today and they were going to make it work.”
“From the first time we ran the ball, you could just see the surge,” Campbell said. “And so, they were ready to go. But they take all that stuff personal, too. They’re no different than us and anybody else, man. When you lose a game and things don’t go your way, man, that’s a tough pill to swallow.”
Much was made about the Lions’ third-down struggles to this point, but one of the biggest culprits in those shortcomings was actually struggles on first and second down; Detroit’s run game was horribly inefficient on those downs, and the offense would often try to make it all up in one third-down chunk, often unsuccessfully.
On Sunday, the Lions averaged 6.4 yards per carry on first down and a 8.3 yards on second down. While collecting a season-high 30 first downs was impressive, the more intriguing part was that the Lions got to third down just 10 times, tied for the second-fewest in a game this season.
Now, that is a winning formula.
▶ Terrion Arnold was having the best coverage game of his career when his outing was cut short once again due to injury. He allowed just one catch for eight yards on three targets and had no penalties, while being perfectly in position to stop the incompletions despite not getting credit for any pass breakups.
The injury situation with Arnold is just downright unfortunate at this point. In addition to the two games he missed with a shoulder injury, Arnold has only finished two of the seven games he’s started this season, and the majority of his early exits have been for different reasons.
This week, it was a concussion. Last week, it was his back. The two previous games he left was because of a shoulder. He departed from Detroit’s Week 1 loss at Green Bay because of a groin injury.
Arnold was also very solid in coverage during last week’s game against Minnesota, when he nabbed his first career interception. So he’s showing some tangible signs of growth, but his health is not cooperating. I’m not sure what the solution is at this point, and a concussion is a whole other beast than the other ailments he’s sustained, but it’s getting in the way of a breakout second season.
nbianchi@detroitnews.com
@nolanbianchi
