Dan Campbell: 'We're going to douse' Jameson Williams in preseason game reps
The Detroit Lions coach said wide receiver Jameson Williams would get heavy preseason playing time in August 2023 to make up for lost development time before a six-game suspension for violating the NFL's gambling policy.
Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell said on August 2, 2023, that wide receiver Jameson Williams would get heavy playing time in preseason games, telling reporters, according to NBC Sports, "It's going to be huge. It'll be imperative. We're going to douse him with a ton of game reps." The comment reflected an unusual situation for a second-year receiver: Williams had barely played as a rookie and was about to lose more time to a suspension before his second season had even started.
NBC Sports' Pro Football Talk reported that Campbell tied the plan directly to how little game experience Williams had banked. "The more reps he gets, the more time on task ... he'll just grow," Campbell said, according to the outlet's account of his remarks.
The particulars of why Williams needed the reps were not in dispute across the available reporting, though the full detail of the Lions' practice-rep plans beyond the coach's public remarks was not independently confirmed beyond what NBC Sports reported from the team's availability.
A rookie year cut short before it started
Williams, Detroit's No. 12 overall pick in the 2022 draft out of Alabama, tore his ACL in his final college game and did not make his NFL debut until Week 12 of his rookie season, per NBC Sports. Over Detroit's final six games that season he played limited snaps and recorded only two touches in total: a 41-yard touchdown catch and a 40-yard run, the outlet reported.
A suspension complicating the plan
Compounding the lost rookie-year reps, Williams was facing a six-game suspension for violating the NFL's gambling policy that would delay the start of his second season, according to NBC Sports. Campbell's framing of preseason as "imperative" reflected that Williams would enter the 2023 season having played a fraction of a normal snap count across two years combined. Campbell added, of Williams' own approach to the work, "I do believe he wants it. I do believe he wants to get better."
US In News compiled this archived account from contemporaneous coverage by NBC Sports. It restores a story originally published on this site in August 2023; figures are as reported at the time.