Second-year Lions wide receiver Jameson Williams has a Hall of Famer in his corner.
Calvin Johnson, who attended two of Detroit’s mandatory minicamp practices this week and met Williams for the first time, later discussed the possibility of mentoring him on 97.1 The Ticket’s Stoney and Jansen with Heather.
"I connected with Jamo yesterday really for the first time, and I look forward to just being around and being a shoulder for him to lean on,” Johnson said. “Extremely talented kid. We saw him when he touched the field last year for the first time. I look forward to just helping him build the level of consistency and being the pro he wants to be, man. Anything I can to do help him, I’ll do that and I’ll be there."
Williams is a tantalizing talent who hasn’t had an extended opportunity to show it yet in the NFL. After going to Detroit at No. 12 overall in the 2022 NFL Draft, Williams spent the first 11 games of the season rehabbing a torn ACL suffered in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game.
He only had two official touches once he returned to the field, but both flashed an explosiveness that could help transform the Lions' offense. One was a 41-yard touchdown catch and the other came on a 40-yard reverse. Williams also took a 65-yard flea flicker to the house in the team’s regular-season finale, but it was called back for holding.
Johnson, meanwhile, is a 2021 Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee with 731 catches for 11,619 yards and 83 touchdowns in nine seasons with the Lions. Any on-field lessons he can impart to Williams will be a boon to the young playmaker and the organization.
He would also be a stellar role model for Williams as he grows in the wake of his six-game suspension for violating the NFL’s gambling policy. Although Williams bet on non-NFL games, he received the punishment for doing so from an NFL facility.
That means the promising wideout won’t be available to play until Oct. 22, a Week 7 contest against the Ravens.
In his absence, Detroit will lean on Amon-Ra St. Brown as the WR1, as well as Josh Reynolds, Kalif Raymond and Marvin Jones, who returned to the team after two seasons with Jacksonville.
To whatever degree Johnson makes himself available, all of Detroit's pass catchers could benefit from his wealth of knowledge.
Such a relationship only became possible recently. Johnson and the team had a falling out over repayment of signing-bonus money following his retirement in 2016, but Megatron’s presence this week signals a further mending of fences.
"With everything, it’s a process and we’re making progress,” he said. “So, I just look forward to continued efforts to move in the right direction."