2022 Dynasty Draft Profile: Jameson Williams

To kick off each dynasty profile from the 2022 skill position draft class, a dated positional ranking will be presented, relevant to that prospect’s position. As the profiles have been published, the rankings have evolved. The number of WRs that are either declared underclassmen or seniors exhausting their eligibility – at least the ones that have publicly declared their intention to pursue a career in the NFL – currently stands at a crowded 168. And that isn’t even an exhaustive number since the WRs who have zero chance of being drafted have already been filtered out from the very long list of those testing at a collegiate Pro Day. Without further delay, here are the top-25 WR rankings from the ‘22 class as of publication:

Class Rank	Player	College	DOB	Age (Week 1)
WR1	Garrett Wilson	Ohio State	7/22/00	22.1
WR2	Chris Olave	Ohio State	6/27/00	22.2
WR3	Drake London	USC	7/24/01	21.1
WR4	Jameson Williams	Alabama	3/26/01	21.5
WR5	Treylon Burks	Arkansas	3/23/00	22.5
WR6	Jahan Dotson	Penn State	3/22/00	22.5
WR7	George Pickens	Georgia	3/4/01	21.6
WR8	Christian Watson	North Dakota State	3/12/99	23.5
WR9	Skyy Moore	Western Michigan	9/10/00	22.0
WR10	David Bell	Purdue	12/14/00	21.8
WR11	Wan'Dale Robinson	Kentucky	1/5/01	21.8
WR12	Alec Pierce	Cincinnati	5/2/00	22.4
WR13	John Metchie III	Alabama	7/18/00	22.1
WR14	Justyn Ross	Clemson	12/15/99	22.8
WR15	Calvin Austin III	Memphis	3/24/99	23.5
WR16	Khalil Shakir	Boise State	2/3/00	22.7
WR17	Bo Melton	Rutgers	5/18/99	23.3
WR18	Jalen Tolbert	South Alabama	2/27/99	23.6
WR19	Danny Gray	SMU	4/1/99	23.5
WR20	Tyquan Thornton	Baylor	8/7/00	22.1
WR21	Samori Touré	Nebraska	3/24/98	24.5
WR22	Kevin Austin Jr.	Notre Dame	3/30/00	22.5
WR23	Ty Fryfogle	Indiana	1/28/99	23.7
WR24	Isaiah Weston	Northern Iowa	10/25/97	24.10
WR25	Deven Thompkins	Utah State	12/23/99	22.8

Get buckled in, this may end up being the most challenging evaluation for any WR in the class. Before we start zig-zagging between his strengths and weaknesses, we’ll begin with the background that led Jameson Williams on his path to the draft. Both of his parents devoted themselves to the track lifestyle. Hell, they met each other on the Sumner High School track team. Jameson’s father, James Sr., ran track at Abilene Christian. From the moment their four kids could put one foot in front of the other, they were running daily sprinting drills. Jameson’s older brother, James Jr., ran track at Northwest Missouri State, his sister, Ja’lanna, ran track at Wayland Baptist and his younger brother, Jaden, runs track at Western Texas.

Williams stood out for the track and field team long before his football career took off for Cardinal Ritter College Prep High School. That impressive pedigree and his early olympic aspirations are solidified by his outstanding HS track results in the following table:

Succeeding in everything he touched, Jamo’s track and field coach just thought he’d see what Williams could do in the 100m as a sophomore; yeah, he recorded a time of 10.54 seconds on his very first attempt, still representing his personal best. Williams won the MSHSAA Class 3 State Championship titles in the 300m Hurdles and assisted in his team’s victory in the 4x200 Relay. His time in the 300m Hurdles (37.28 seconds) broke Ezekiel Elliott’s Missouri state record. While he captured MSHSAA Class 3 State Championship victories in the 100m, 200m, 400m and 300m Hurdles in the spring following his junior football season, Williams was clearly focused on his massive upside on the gridiron.

Williams blew up with 36 receptions, 1,062 yards (29.5 YPR!) and 19 TDs during that 2017 season as a junior. During the second round of the playoffs, Juiceman clashed talents with one of his very best friends, Isaiah Williams. The two titled themselves “Young Kings” while growing up in St. Louis playing ball together. Jameson’s Egyptian Lions suffered a humiliating 28-7 loss. Granted, that defeat came at the hands of not only his dear friend, but a stacked Trinity Catholic squad that also featured Mookie Cooper, Marcus Washington, Reggie Love III and Shammond Cooper. Jameson’s breakout season earned him MSHSAA Class 3 First Team All-Metro and All-State honors.

Jamo’s finest individual game performance came as a senior. During a 40-35 victory over St. Francis Borgia, Williams assembled a 9/257/5 receiving line. Those five TDs are tied for the seventh-most in a single game in Missouri HS history while his 257 receiving yards are the 21st-most. Jameson led his team all of the way to the MSHSAA Class 3 State Championship game. In storybook fashion, Cardinal Ritter would be met by none other than Trinity Catholic in a rematch with his best mate. Once again, Jamo’s team was decimated by the loaded Titans’ roster, this time by a score of 45-19.

In recognition for his 68/1,626/22 receiving line (23.9 YPR), Williams collected repeat MSHSAA Class 3 First Team All-Metro and All-State selections. For his career, Williams’ 127 receptions are the third-most in Missouri HS history, while his 3,032 receiving yards and 41 TDs are both tied for the 13th-most. Prior to that senior season, Williams was invited to participate in The Opening Regionals, after which he advanced to the finals and gave us the following measurements:

That early speed isn’t going to surprise anyone, but let’s circle back to that 5-10-5 shuttle time. Dating back to his junior year breakout, programs across the country were competing for the right to extend a scholarship in Williams’ direction. Before playing his first snap as a senior for Cardinal Ritter, he had already received 30 offers. By the end of his prep career, that number ballooned to 46. And you can use the list of interested programs to check off the entire FBS powerhouse catalog. That said, it all came down to two schools: Alabama and Ohio State.

It’s inconsequential why Jameson chose the Buckeyes since his path would also take him to Tuscaloosa. He ended up playing in eight games for OSU in each of the 2019 and 2020 seasons. Rather than reaching for factors to explain why Williams was unable to capture the role he envisioned for himself in Columbus and led to his departure, we’ll save it until his film breakdown.

Right after his CFP National Championship victory over Ohio State, Nick Saban made it clear to his staff that he wanted more speed on the outside. It just so happens that Alabama assistant HC and WR coach Holmon Wiggins played with a guy named Brandon Gregory during his University of New Mexico days. Gregory, as it just so happens, was Williams’ HC during his Cardinal Ritter days.

Exactly 107 days after losing that game to ‘Bama, Jameson entered his name into the transfer portal. Wiggins wasted no time getting on the horn with Gregory, who subsequently got in touch with Williams. Bada bing bada boom, Juiceman only sat in the transfer portal for five days before signing on the dotted line with the Tide.

Judging by the results, the decision was a stroke of pure genius. He left an OSU roster with the most talented WR rotation in the country to join a Tide WR room that was searching to replace production from Jaylen Waddle and DeVonta Smith. The results speak for themselves. Williams concluded the ‘21 season as a First Team All-American, First Team All-SEC and SEC Co-Special Teams Player of the Year. In addition, during Alabama’s 63-14 rout of Southern Miss in Week 4, Williams became the first player in school history to return multiple kickoffs for TDs in a single game.

We all saw the devastating knee injury suffered by Williams during the most recent CFP National Championship defeat to Georgia. Williams was able to provide us with his physical measurements in the table above – provided in comparison percentiles to Combine participants from the last 10 seasons. But he was obviously unable to provide us with any updated athletic measurements:

“Sub 4.3 speed” might be a tad optimistic, but the overall take-home from his doctor’s beliefs offered in the following tweet are certainly a step in a positive direction:

During the course of this evaluation, Williams will have his receiving tools broken down in order to be graded within six categories. Let’s begin the process with an assessment of his release. There is no denying how much of an impact Brian Hartline, Ohio State’s WR coach, played in Williams’ get-off fundamentals. The particulars in Williams’ initial release are a mirror image to that of Garrett Wilson and Chris Olave’s.

Beyond the get-off, Williams does differ in a couple of regards into his route stems. First of all, he is not a hand-fighter. Engaging in any type of physical exchange with a defender runs the risk of essentially removing him from that play. To that end, hand fighting is not a tool he’s willing to engage. That leaves him more vulnerable than he already was with his lean frame being redirected by handsy defenders. It also removes his chance of knocking a defender off balance.

In addition, Williams’ approach to stemming defensive backs is quite unorthodox. As we’ll get into later, Jameson is not a sharp lateral-agility guy. His shiftiness is limited by his sprinter’s mentality. Rather than burning a path directly at the CB, then forcing him to guess on his hip direction – the textbook approach, Williams knows he will be unable to offload his momentum in time to sidestep the risk of contact with the defender. In response, when it’s clear that a corner will not allow a free release, he significantly cuts his momentum early in order to alter his vertical path to get around the defender. It’s an approach that stamps out many of his opportunities to regain leverage. In turn, Jameson is serving his QB zero favors with his passing angles.

Shifting to his route-running precision, on routes outside of the five-yard, legal contact zone, Williams is one of the most dangerous wideouts in the class. His route mechanics beyond five yards are clean enough to use his gifts as a game-changer. As we’ll beat the drum on throughout, physical limitations sap Jameson’s effectiveness against corners skilled enough to mirror his movements. We see those limitations when engaged at the top of his routes and on shallow routes where defenders are free to engage.

Some of Williams’ finest moments when he faced off-man coverage were on double-moves. Unfortunately, we have less than five examples where ‘Bama used him on those lethal double-moves. His drafting team should envision building a higher percentage of those double-moves into their playbook, particularly in anticipation of soft coverage. When we did see them, responsible corners were forced into a hold-or-get-burned scenario. In fact, the evidence just does not support CBs ever being tasked with soft coverage over Williams. Get a body on the kid, or else. Jamo is already earning so much respect for his speed that soft coverage left him completely free to work in, out and back without resistance.

Let’s sidestep Juiceman’s receiving tools for a moment to examine his coverage scheme effectiveness. One reason in particular is in continuing with the man coverage/get-a-body-on-the-kid discussion. Among the WRs in the ‘21 class with enough routes against Cover 1 to qualify, Williams was barely able to crack the top-100 in FPs/route. Why? We see perfect examples on his shallow work where physical corners can outmuscle Williams within the confines of the rulebook.

Williams lacks all forms of physicality to his game. The physicality he obviously does possess is not put on display by design in order to prevent contact altering his vertical speed. It’s a considerable long-term concern since Cover 1 is the second-most common scheme he’ll face in the NFL. Check out Week 3 at Florida and Week 13 at Auburn to discover the limitation for yourself.

Williams obviously didn’t post a 79/1,572/15 receiving line with the Crimson Tide solely on routes where he was outmuscled in one-on-ones. The majority of the production Williams did manage against Cover 1 was collected when his assigned corner gave him a cushion in a backwards attempt to eliminate his vertical game.

On the limited routes we have of Jamo working against Cover 2, he was consistently redirected at the line. However, as you can see from his glorious green checks in the table above, Williams’ game truly blossoms while attacking Cover 3, 4 and 6. It just so happens that each of those schemes provided Jameson with the free release where he thrives to tap into his most dangerous trait: separation.

If not for being a raw prospect in other areas, Williams’ otherworldly separation would likely push him to the very top of the wideout class. Already forcing teams to shade deep safety help in his direction, the teams that didn’t consistently redirect him at the line paid a steep price. With the throw on the way, Williams was excellent at consistently running directly through the ball on his deep shots.

One of the areas where Williams could work to push his separation to another level is by simply employing stacks over his coverage. We have so few examples from Jameson’s college tape where he attempted to stack his coverage. And the reason may be as obvious as being accustomed to being faster than everyone else on the field. A receiver stacks his coverage to create far cleaner passing angles for his QB. When you’re five yards out in front of a defender, the angle is as clean as it is going to get. But Williams is not going to find that run-to-sunshine separation very often in the NFL.

One of the cleanest components to his game, improvisation. Williams checks every box in the scramble drill department. You could see the considerable trust Bryce Young had in instantly focusing his attention on Jameson when forced off-platform. Will a fair share of games for Williams against the most physical man corners end with disappointing numbers? Count on it. But even the best-of-the-best will have difficulty hanging with Jameson beyond four seconds when the pass rush fails to get their hands on his QB.

Optimum Comparison Career Path (6-foot-1+)
Player	Games	Receptions	Rec/G	Receiving Yards	YPG	YPR	TD	TD/G
Jerry Rice	332	1,700	5.12	25,140	75.7	14.79	197	0.59
Terrell Owens	231	1,132	4.90	16,685	72.2	14.74	158	0.68
Randy Moss	233	1,036	4.45	16,269	69.8	15.70	166	0.71
Andre Johnson Sr.	197	1,087	5.52	14,543	73.8	13.38	71	0.36
Cris Carter	248	1,164	4.69	14,769	59.6	12.69	138	0.56
Julio Jones	154	946	6.14	14,226	92.4	15.04	67	0.44
Andre Reed	255	1,036	4.06	14,427	56.6	13.93	96	0.38
Art Monk	239	1,009	4.22	13,783	57.7	13.66	75	0.31
Brandon Marshall	179	970	5.42	12,351	69.0	12.73	83	0.46
Michael Irvin	175	839	4.79	13,219	75.5	15.76	73	0.42
Jerry Jeudy1	69	276	4.00	4,292	62.2	15.55	51	0.74
DeVonta Smith2	83	372	4.48	6,089	73.4	16.37	82	0.99
Jameson Williams3	67	221	3.30	4,870	72.7	22.04	59	0.88

1Two seasons of data from Deerfield Beach High School and three seasons from the University of Alabama

2Two seasons of data from Amite High School and four seasons from the University of Alabama

3Three seasons of data from Cardinal Ritter College Prep High School, two seasons from Ohio State University and one season from the University of Alabama

Let’s close out Williams’ receiving tool eval with the one raising the most red flags: ball skills. Without a doubt the single biggest issue in his game is that he’s the very definition of a body catcher. Curious why Jameson failed to carve out the share of the targets he expected with Ohio State? Perhaps you were just provided with the answer. Did he consistently come open on a couple routes each game for the Buckeyes where he could have been targeted for increased production? No question. However, the film from his last two seasons also informs us that Jameson matured quite a bit upon taking the field for Alabama – mentally and physically.

It’s clear the transfer served his best interests. Just don’t get carried away calling the coaching staff or Justin Fields’ preference for peppering Olave and Wilson as a mistake. Williams left a ton of production on the field during his monster ‘21 due to his inability to adequately catch with his hands. If you have the time on your hands – pun intended, check out the number of throws outside of his frame that Jamo couldn’t collect. He could have set some difficult records to break for the Tide if he had already dedicated himself to his hand-eye coordination.

Consider that, of his 88 receptions the last two seasons, Williams only collected 14.8% with his hands. Of the ones that he did manage to grab with his hands, he double-caught 30.8% of them. Jameson pulled in a grand total of five-of-88 receptions with his hands that were outside of his frame (5.7%). So much of that speed and acceleration talent will go to waste if Juiceman doesn’t literally devote ALL of his spare time as a rookie to plucking throws from the Jugs machine with his hands.

When Jameson was unable to collect throws with his body or by successfully trapping balls between his forearms (yikes!), his completion rate plummeted. Make no mistake, both the OSU and UA coaching staffs were 100% aware of this issue and made every effort to coach it out of him. It leaves one to wonder how Jameson can have his game fall apart by attempting to catch with his hands on one play, then make an over-the-shoulder catch appear routine on the next. Granted, every one of his over-the-shoulder receptions were collected between his forearms, and the majority of that success was accomplished by Williams’ excellent track-work on vertical throws.

Williams’ future team will need to enter the process by stripping him back down to the fundamentals. He must rework the entirety of his receiving process on throws outside of his frame, let alone when he’s called upon to lay out for the most difficult throws. To put it all into perspective, Rachaad White and James Cook are simply on another level as it relates to their ball skills.

Coaches are notorious for expressing complete confidence in correcting flaws in a prospect with the type of athleticism Jamo brings to the table. Many times biting off more than they can chew. If coaching does the trick, Williams has the potential to be a truly special addition to the NFL. Even if teams heavily shade a safety over the top and devote their top corner to Jameson, the rest of the offense will have enough space to completely justify the draft capital. The other half of the equation is dealing with the constant physicality of NFL corners. If he lands with a QB that relies heavily on success against Cover 1, we will need to devote quite a bit of thought investigating the particulars before adding him to our fantasy rosters.

Williams also needs to work on avoiding unnecessary contact. His future will be best served by being taught the benefits of going to the ground and out-of-bounds to avoid damage. While Williams does not appear to enjoy absorbing contact, on the high number of screens ‘Bama designed for him, he absorbed far too many hits to the lower body. Get down, kid. Please! Even if we didn’t have to deal with the recent ACL tear, durability would still be an issue if his NFL team plans to force him into quick-hitting screens and/or trick Jets/reverses/end-arounds that force him to play laterally. Williams is not equipped to make those quick directional changes with sudden cuts – just go watch the play where he tore up his knee.

With the ball in his hands, Juiceman packs a nasty-effective stiff arm to push his speed into space. His breakaway speed is obviously out of this world. For all of those endless engine hustlers in the NFL, think again if you intend to attempt to catch him on a rear-side sprint. When Williams gets behind the defense, it’s already too late. You get what you get with this kid. He’s just about as raw as he is one of the most speed-gifted prospects in the class. A max-effort kid with a desire to be the most dangerous playmaker on the field. He wants the ball, he wants to burn, he wants the end zone and he needs a considerable amount of fundamental coaching.

2021 Video Recommendations: Week 1 vs. Miami (FL), Week 3 at Florida, Week 5 vs. Ole Miss, Week 6 at Texas A&M, Week 7 at Mississippi State, Week 8 vs. Tennessee, Week 10 vs. LSU, Week 12 vs. Arkansas, Week 13 at Auburn, SEC Championship at Georgia, CFP Semifinals (Cotton Bowl) vs. Cincinnati and CFP National Championship vs. Georgia

Optimal Landing Spots: Philadelphia Eagles, Arizona Cardinals, Chicago Bears, Dallas Cowboys, New York Jets, Atlanta Falcons and Green Bay Packers

Film Review Comp (2021): Terrace Marshall Jr.

Overall Comp (Factoring size, athleticism, tape and level of collegiate production): Will Fuller V

To close, the following tweet details a component of Williams’ ACL rehabilitation where he will soon be spending a great deal of his time:

You’ll find a table further down filled with historical data pre- and post-ACL surgery for as many ACL injuries to wide receivers that could be located. A lot of opinions are tossed around regarding the long-term impact that surgical repair of an ACL plays on the production of NFL players. Nobody can fault doctors for providing their clients with positive expectations. That’s how every surgeon should approach every ACL repair. And a patient should always approach rehab with a positive mindset. However, beyond the benefits of a positive mindset, we are left with the cold-hard data.

Each ACL injury/repair is unique. Some involve additional repairs to the surrounding structures. All individuals heal differently. Some individuals do not strictly adhere to the rehabilitation schedule. Some individuals have even previously undergone one-or-more unreported knee surgeries.

With all of that in mind, let’s all be honest here, we simply do not have enough ACL injury/recovery data collected overall, let alone on players at specific positions, to draw absolute conclusions. The one factor that does appear to spell trouble following ACL repair is that a career will come under considerable risk following a second tear to the same ligament.

The line is drawn here. Nothing omitted sans capping all decreases in production at -100%. No opinions expressed. No attempt to convince anyone of anything. Use everything listed in the table below and the subsequent graph to draw your own conclusions. Please feel free to reach out with any WR that may have been overlooked during the data collection process.