Debut for Lions rookie Jameson Williams not coming right after the bye

It has seemed like Lions rookie wide receiver Jameson Williams would make his NFL debut soon after a Week 6 bye, but that doesn’t appear to be happening now.

Near the end of September, it seemed Lions rookie wide receiver Jameson Williams was continuing to make excellent progress in his recovery from a torn ACL in January. Holding out through a Week 6 bye always made sense, even as the window to activate him from the NFI list opened after four games.

Speaking to the media on Wednesday, Lions head coach Dan Campbell suggested the 21-day clock to activate Williams won’t be started until after the bye week and his debut won’t come for a bit after that. Campbell did start with the note that Willliams’ rehab has been picking up in recent weeks.

"I know ‘JaMo,’ really over the past three weeks, it’s really picking up in a good way,”It’s hard to put a deadline as to when they’d be out there, but I think you’re still looking at a while,” Campbell said. “Certainly, a good time after the bye before we can think about it.”"

When will Jameson Williams make his debut?

Near the start of training camp, NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reported Williams’ return timeline as “around” November. That would be Week 9, Nov. 6 when the Lions will take on the Green Bay Packers at home.

If the Lions activated Williams on, say, Oct. 19 coming out of the bye week, Nov. 6 (or a little before, truly, if he was going to play then) would be within the 21-day window where they’d have to add him to the active roster.

The Lions have consistently said they would not rush Williams, which is the right move, and it has also always been clear they would be conservative with his timeline to suit up in a game. If that means exhausting most of a 21-day window to add him to the active roster and not even starting that clock until the days coming out of the bye week, so be it.

So the wait for Lions fans to see Williams play will all but certainly wait until the calendar flips to a new month next month.