Jameson Williams health improving, but return not expected until ‘a good time’ after bye

Oct 5, 2022 - 7:00 PM

On Wednesday, Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell was asked about the progress of both defensive end Romeo Okwara and receiver Jameson Williams. Both are recovering from serious injuries—Okwara a torn Achilles from last October and Williams a torn ACL from January—and both have yet to return to practice.

Campbell offered a mixed bag of news for both. At first, he seemed optimistic about the progress Williams has made in the past few weeks.

“Both of those guys are really improving. I know ‘JaMo,’ really over the past three weeks, it’s really picking up in a good way,” Campbell said.

We’ve seen a lot of that progress via social media, where Williams posted a video of himself running at nearly full speed, including route running and tight cuts.

But despite that progress, the Lions are still taking it very slowly with both players, and it doesn’t sound like we’ll see either of them on the field anytime soon.

“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.”

The Lions’ bye week is in Week 6, so that’s not very far away, but Campbell’s comments match the original reported timeline that suggested the Lions were aiming for a November return for Williams. So we’re likely talking about Week 9 at the absolute earliest for either player.

In the meantime, it seems like the Lions offense is doing just fine without him, currently averaging a league-high 35.0 points per game.