Mailbag: If Jameson Williams breaks out, what happens to other WR’s target share?

Each week, we’re going to try and supplement our Midweek Mailbag podcast with a written mailbag answering your Detroit Lions questions. If you want to participate, the best way to submit your questions is via Twitter/X, using the hashtag #AskPOD.

Here’s this week’s questions:

The answer to your first question is yes. They work on pinning down punts during almost every single special teams break, particularly if punting is a focus of practice.

I think this is simply the case of two ugly examples sticking out in the mind compared to how the team has performed overall. Last year, Jack Fox successfully pinned 45.6 percent of his punts inside the opponents’ 20-yard line. Only four punters had a better percentage than that. His touchback percentage (8.8%) was a bit high (ninth highest), but we’re talking about five total touchbacks for the entire regular season compared to 26 pinned inside the 20. This does not strike me as a consistent problem.

As for Rakestraw, it’s a relatively new position for him. He had 44 punt return snaps in college, and I don’t have the game film to see if those were at gunner. Either way, that’s a pretty low amount of in-game reps. Give him time.

I’ll admit the Tom Kennedy elevation caught me off guard, and after seeing his snap counts (four on offense, six on special teams), it didn’t provide much clarity.

Obviously, I can’t be 100 percent certain in my evaluation of why they did it since the Lions didn’t say, but my best guess is that Kennedy has been in this offense the longest and has enough versatility to play any of the X, Y, or Z positions. That made him Detroit’s best depth option in case of emergency.

The (lack of) usage of Jack Campbell. I intend on that being one of the first questions I ask to defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn—although I’m expecting an answer along the lines of “we like all of our linebackers.”

We’ll see if this was a Rams gameplan-specific deal or not, but I was expecting Campbell to garner around 100 percent of the snaps this year as the top MIKE linebacker option. However, he was regularly rotated out of the lineup for either Derrick Barnes or Malcolm Rodriguez. I knew Barnes was going to play a big role this year at the SAM position, but I was under the impression he’d only go back to MIKE if injury necessitated it.

On defense, my biggest concern is still the secondary. I don’t think they were particularly awful on Sunday—they probably should have had three interceptions, after all—but they’re going against some very, very good receivers this year, and I’d like to see their man coverage just a little more sticky going forward.

Offensively, I was a little let down by the offensive line’s pass protection. Taylor Decker, Penei Sewell, Graham Glasgow, and Kevin Zeitler all gave up at least two pressures each. Now, am I concerned about this long-term? No. But it was a little disheartening to see considering the hype around this unit.

If there’s a long-term concern with the offense, it’s that Jameson Williams was the only wideout to get significantly involved. Amon-Ra St. Brown looked like he was in a role he doesn’t really thrive in, and Jared Goff couldn’t seem to find Kalif Raymond, who I thought was open often. My hope is that whoever wins the WR-X battle on the practice squad will help move St. Brown to a more comfortable role and give Goff another weapon.

I would push back on those two having a similar resume. To this point, David Montgomery has averaged 62.9 yards per game over six seasons. In Williams’ first six seasons, he only averaged 40.6 yards per game. Montgomery has always been built to be a more sustained feature back, and, really, the only times Williams was the feature back was in his two years in Detroit.

Now, that said, Montgomery certainly has gone through more wear and tear in his career (1,151 rushing attempts to Williams’ 1,032, despite two fewer seasons), and Montgomery is just three years away from the dreaded 30-year-old cliff that running backs typically experience.

But as this video shows, the Lions were extremely impressed with how Montgomery looked physically this offseason, and there are no current signs of decline. Are the Lions likely to give Montgomery a three-year extension in 2026? I would hope not, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they put him on a one or two-year deal after this one expires.

No, I don’t. I think there will be plenty of room to feed everyone. St. Brown is still absolutely essential to this team—particularly on third-and-shorts. This team lives on third-and-short because they love to run the ball on early downs, and that makes St. Brown (and Sam LaPorta) essential players.

Jameson Williams simply gives them an explosive options where they lacked one previously. There’s obviously a finite amount of targets to go around, but think of it this way: Williams and Josh Reynolds combined for 64 catches, 964 yards, and seven touchdowns. If Williams just absorbs all of that production, it would still very much be a breakout season with the same opportunities for LaPorta and St. Brown to match their 2023 production.

Well, if there’s anything we know about this regime, it’s that they like to ease their injured players in slowly. The nose tackle position already accounts for just about 50 percent of defensive snaps, so assuming an average of 70 defensive snaps in the game, we’re already talking about around 35 snap opportunities for Reader. In the future, I expect to see him to take nearly all of those (he averaged about 40 snaps per game last year). But this week, I would expect about a 60-40 split with Kyle Peko. Let’s call it an even 20 snaps for Reader.