Ht – 6’1” Wt – 179 lb Class – JR Age – 23
Career Statistics
2021 Stats – 79 Rec, 1572 Yds, 15 TD (15 Games Played)
Career Stats – 94 Rec, 1838 Yds, 18 TD (25 Games Played)
Attribute Breakdown
Hands & Ball Skills – Outstanding ball skills. Jameson Williams showed great ability to leap, dive, and extend outside his frame to make tough catches. He has very sure hands and had few drops. Had some instances of double catches, but this is not an area of concern.
Contested Catch – Surprisingly good in traffic despite his lack of physicality. He often made tough catches with multiple defenders draped all over him.
Size & Speed – Elite height and speed combo. This is more of an endorsement of his height rather than his size, as his weight is a bit of a concern. He is very lean for an NFL receiver, and although this is reminiscent of DeVonta Smith, who showed no struggle acclimating to the NFL physicality, Williams doesn’t possess that physicality. He got bumped and bounced around often by any level of physicality, even while attempting to block.
Release – Very quick feet to avoid and elude physical press corners. As mentioned, he lacks physicality, which is a big issue in dealing with press. This is what led Ahmad Gardner to have such a successful day against him.
Routes & Separation – Great route runner. Williams’s ability to turn his momentum mid-sprint is unmatched. Although his route breaks could use more suddenness, his change-of-direction ability helps him be great in this regard. Additionally, he takes very long strides which makes him deceptively fast. This translates to an elite ability to pull away and separate once the ball is in the air, or once he gets behind a defender.
Combine – Since he is dealing with an ACL injury he couldn’t participate in any athletic testing, but he measured in at only 179lb. That is shockingly light for an NFL receiver. Of course, he can’t train as much as he did before the injury, but this is still very low.
YAC – With quick feet and exceptional change-of-direction ability, Williams is remarkable after the catch. His start-and-stop ability is also great. Despite his lack of physicality and size, he slips through and bounces off tackles with ease, even against the NFL-caliber CFB defenses.
Football IQ – Williams does a great job of finding the soft spots in the zone. His positioning is always perfect, and many of his great plays came once the play was broken. His ability to improvise is very QB-friendly.
Versatility – Was used all over the offense as a true weapon. He took end-arounds, hand-offs, and screens, while also lining up in the slot and out wide.
Overall
Jameson Williams is a special prospect, who almost breaks the traditional WR mold. Generally, WRs are either very fast and quick or are big, tall, and physical. Occasionally, a generational talent comes along (i.e. JaMarr Chase, DK Metcalf) who is both, but that is rare.
Williams has above-average height and possesses lightning speed and separation ability. He makes contested catches with ease, and his ball skills are extraordinary. He even has great YAC skills and quick feet, making him seem like a true all-around weapon.
There are only two things that make me pause, and they are two big ones.
For starters, he struggles with any sort of physicality. He plays with great passion and intensity, but his lack of weight prevents that from translating into physicality. Even if he adds weight, we’d first need to be sure it doesn’t come at the cost of his speed and quickness. Unfortunately, it usually does. This is an area that stunts many star CFB WRs from becoming star NFL WRs.
Secondly, he tore his ACL in his final game, as reported by Adam Schefter.
Alabama’s Jameson Williams, the projected top WR in the 2022 NFL Draft, tore his ACL last night vs. Georgia, per sources. Doctors believe that, after surgery within the next 10 days, Williams will retain his sub 4.3 speed, and they expect a full recovery.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 11, 2022
Although it is expected that he will make a full recovery, it is yet to be seen where he will be from a speed and quickness perspective to start the 2022 season. Without his elite speed and quickness, he is a tall and non-physical WR with no elite skills other than ball tracking.
Jameson Williams could easily be the best WR from this class, but he is much riskier than all the others.
See Jameson Williams’s overall ranking among other players on my Big Board.
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