Lions writer makes prediction for Jameson Williams debut

Time will tell how he progresses from his ACL tear, but the lead writer for the Lions’ website has made a prediction for when Jameson Williams will make his NFL debut.

Despite the fact he suffered a torn ACL in January’s national championship game, the Detroit Lions made a bold move to the 12th overall pick in the draft to take wide receiver Jameson Williams.

Williams is unlikely to be ready for Week 1, but he wants to be ready for training camp and if that ends up happening playing the season opener will feel possible. What his limitations might be, in terms of snap count, etc., is a different conversation.

Williams’ surgeon suggested 5-7 months for a full recovery from an ACL tear, while also hinting that Williams’ injury was “straight forward”, as in little or no residual damage. That would point to the possibility of a quick recocery, and Week 1 would be at or close to the exact eight-month mark from when he suffered the injury.

Lions’ website writer makes prediction for Jameson Williams’ debut

Tim Twentyman of the Lions’ website took questions for a 10-question mailbag that was posted on Friday. One question was about Williams, and when he might make his NFL debut.

Here’s a piece of Twentyman’s answer, with a prediction.

"Williams thinks he can be ready by training camp in August, which is aggressive. If he takes part in training camp at all, I think we could see him in the first month of the season. If he misses camp, he’ll need time to acclimate himself to game speed at practice, and I would think late September early October would be a realistic timeframe.If I had to make a guess, I’d say Week 4 at home vs. Seattle we could see Williams on the field and making an impact, but here’s hoping for Week 1 just because I’m really excited to watch him in this offense."

A fantasy football prediction for Williams in his rookie season, from Football Outsiders, predicted his debut to come between Week 7-10. That would be the Lions taking a very cautious approach with his recovery, which isn’t necessarily wrong even if he avoids setbacks.

Late-September or into October has been the general consensus for predicting when Williams will make his NFL debut, and Twentyman is right there in early October with the Week 4 game against the Seahawks on Oct. 2.