{"id":35835,"date":"2022-06-04T01:08:03","date_gmt":"2022-06-04T01:08:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/lions-oc-ben-johnson-itll-be-a-challenge-to-integrate-wr-jameson-williams-into-offense\/"},"modified":"2022-06-04T01:08:03","modified_gmt":"2022-06-04T01:08:03","slug":"lions-oc-ben-johnson-itll-be-a-challenge-to-integrate-wr-jameson-williams-into-offense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/lions-oc-ben-johnson-itll-be-a-challenge-to-integrate-wr-jameson-williams-into-offense\/","title":{"rendered":"Lions OC Ben Johnson: It’ll be a challenge to integrate WR Jameson Williams into offense"},"content":{"rendered":"
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ALLEN PARK – Jameson Williams is the fastest man in Detroit. Heck, he just might be the fastest man in the NFL whenever he has two good knees again.<\/p>\n

But that moment has yet to arrive, and won’t until at least training camp.<\/p>\n

And that will make it awfully hard to integrate the speedy wide receiver into the Detroit Lions offense.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s going to be a challenge,\u201d offensive coordinator Ben Johnson said. \u201cBecause you can’t really compare it to the Josh Reynolds situation from last year, which I would love to do. Because (Reynolds) came in late and we didn’t necessarily know him and what he did best. But at least there was a comfort level between him and the quarterback, and we don’t have that (with Williams). “<\/p>\n

Reynolds became something of a savior for the Lions last season. Nobody struggled to get the football downfield more than Jared Goff in the first half of last season, although that wasn’t entirely Goff’s fault. There just wasn’t anyone getting open downfield. Not after projected starters like Tyrell Williams and Breshad Perriman both flamed out before Week 2.<\/p>\n

Then Reynolds was claimed off waivers on Nov. 10. He didn’t play the following Sunday, and didn’t catch a pass the Sunday after that. The rest of the way: 19 catches for 306 yards, an average of 16.1 yards per catch.<\/p>\n

That made him one of the best downfield threats in the entire league, quite the feat for a guy who was learning the offense on the fly – and doing so for a team that had been struggling more than anybody to get the ball downfield. Reynolds deserves a lot of the credit, and has been rewarded with a new two-year, $ 6 million contract this offseason. But his chemistry di lui with Goff also helped, after spending four seasons together with the Los Angeles Rams.<\/p>\n

Now the Lions have added two more speedy wideouts to the rotation, guaranteeing $ 10 million to DJ Chark in free agency before trading up to select Williams with the 12th overall pick in the draft. Throw in the return of guys like Amon-Ra St. Brown, TJ Hockenson and D’Andre Swift, and the Lions have assembled one of the most intriguing sets of skill players in the league.<\/p>\n

The problem, of course, is Williams is still recovering from the torn ACL he suffered in the national championship game at Alabama. He has said he expects to participate in training camp, although that remains very much to be decided. There’s no doubt he’ll add speed and athleticism whenever he does hit the field, although his lack of experience with Goff – and the NFL game for that matter – could mean it takes more time for him to integrate into the offense than a guy like Reynolds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat’s a real struggle for us, is to get him back and get him healthy, and then as many reps as possible with the quarterbacks so that we know exactly where he’s going to be, and we can anticipate the throw,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cThat’s one thing (Goff) had already naturally with Josh coming from their days in LA<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we have a good vision for how we want to use (Williams) though, and right now our biggest issue is just the mental. We have to continue to load him up and let this sink in. Because for all the college guys we have right now, it’s a lot. It’s a lot. We’re putting a lot on their plate. And I’m really pleased with how he’s approached this thing right now. Even though he can’t be out there physically right now, he’s engaged in each meeting. “<\/p>\n

Even without Williams on the field, the investment at receiver is already paying off. Chark and St. Brown have both looked good during the early portions of the offseason program, while former starters like Kalif Raymond and Quintez Cephus – who is back from the broken collarbone that cost him most of last season – have been coming off the bench. The depth is so much better at that position, inspiring hope that the new-look offense will be able to hurt defenses this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that’s shown up from Day 1 of the springtime,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cWe’re on the field with routes against air, and all those guys are moving really well. We have a healthy competition, and probably more so than just the talent and the depth, I’m really excited about the way they potentially complement each other. We have a good mix of guys with size, guys with speed, we got smart players across the board. Once again, we talk about the verbiage and all that, that’s necessary. We got to have smart players if we’re going to attack defenses the way we want to attack them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat room looks really good right now. We just continue to stay healthy and push each other along, and the sky’s the limit. “<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ALLEN PARK – Jameson Williams is the fastest man in Detroit. Heck, he just might be the fastest man in the NFL whenever he has two good knees again. But that moment has yet to arrive, and won’t until at least training camp. And that will make it awfully hard to integrate the speedy wide …<\/p>\n

Lions OC Ben Johnson: It’ll be a challenge to integrate WR Jameson Williams into offense<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.mlive.com\/resizer\/DG-rbf6nGmIYTnfiMkbWW6Yf_c4=\/1280x0\/smart\/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com\/advancelocal\/6TJ6VAECTBC3XDAGFNXQZVW5GE.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35835"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35835\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}