I will be interested to see where Jameson Williams goes. There are some who believe he’s the best receiver in this draft, but he’s not a usual kind of prospect.
Williams tore his ACL in January, so I don’t know that you’re getting much premium play out of him in 2022. He may start the year on the PUP list. The hope would be that he can maybe start half the season, get his feet wet, and then come back in 2023 and excel.
The body type is different. He’s got that same rail-thin build as DeVonta Smith, who preceded him at Alabama. He’s 6-foot-2 and 179 pounds, so there could be some issues with press coverage and making contested catches.
There’s also the weird deal where Williams couldn’t get on the field at Ohio State. He caught only 15 passes in two seasons with the Buckeyes. They watched him practice for two seasons and didn’t think he was as good as Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson (who are also going to be selected in the first round tomorrow). Ohio State, of course, made a similar decision with Joe Burrow, who left for LSU when Urban Meyer’s staff decided Dwayne Haskins was better.
Williams put up big numbers last year at Alabama, continuing that school’s remarkable pipeline with wide receiver talent. Only two of those receivers finished a season with more receiving yards or touchdown catches than Williams.
Below, see a compilation of the wide receivers from Alabama who’ve gone on to be selected in the first round. (I don’t think John Metchie will be picked in the first, but he might be, so I also tossed him on there.)
Players are ordered by average fantasy points per game (using PPR scoring). But to avoid making the chart too cluttered, I’m showing just the receiving production for each player. The final two columns show the team numbers, giving an idea of the offense they were running. (Julio Jones, for example, finished with only 924 yards in 2008, but that team averaged only 171 passing yards – about half of what they’ve put up the last two seasons).
| NICK SABAN'S FIRST ROUND RECEIVERS | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | G | No | Yards | Avg | TD | T Yds | TTD |
| 2020 | DeVonta Smith | 13 | 117 | 1,856 | 15.9 | 23 | 358 | 3.2 |
| 2014 | Amari Cooper | 14 | 124 | 1,727 | 13.9 | 16 | 278 | 2.3 |
| 2021 | Jameson Williams | 15 | 79 | 1,572 | 19.9 | 15 | 338 | 3.2 |
| 2019 | DeVonta Smith | 13 | 68 | 1,256 | 18.5 | 14 | 342 | 3.8 |
| 2021 | • John Metchie | 13 | 96 | 1,142 | 11.9 | 8 | 338 | 3.2 |
| 2019 | Jerry Jeudy | 13 | 77 | 1,163 | 15.1 | 10 | 342 | 3.8 |
| 2018 | Jerry Jeudy | 15 | 68 | 1,315 | 19.3 | 14 | 324 | 3.5 |
| 2020 | Jaylen Waddle | 6 | 28 | 591 | 21.1 | 4 | 358 | 3.2 |
| 2010 | Julio Jones | 13 | 78 | 1,133 | 14.5 | 7 | 261 | 1.8 |
| 2012 | Amari Cooper | 14 | 59 | 1,000 | 16.9 | 11 | 218 | 2.2 |
| 2015 | Calvin Ridley | 15 | 89 | 1,045 | 11.7 | 7 | 227 | 1.5 |
| 2020 | • John Metchie | 13 | 55 | 916 | 16.7 | 6 | 358 | 3.2 |
| 2017 | Calvin Ridley | 14 | 63 | 967 | 15.3 | 5 | 193 | 2.0 |
| 2018 | Henry Ruggs | 14 | 46 | 741 | 16.1 | 11 | 324 | 3.5 |
| 2019 | Henry Ruggs | 12 | 40 | 746 | 18.7 | 7 | 342 | 3.8 |
| 2013 | Amari Cooper | 11 | 45 | 736 | 16.4 | 4 | 249 | 2.3 |
| 2016 | Calvin Ridley | 15 | 72 | 769 | 10.7 | 7 | 210 | 1.7 |
| 2008 | Julio Jones | 14 | 58 | 924 | 15.9 | 4 | 171 | .8 |
| 2018 | Jaylen Waddle | 15 | 45 | 848 | 18.8 | 7 | 324 | 3.5 |
| 2018 | DeVonta Smith | 13 | 42 | 693 | 16.5 | 6 | 324 | 3.5 |
| 2009 | Julio Jones | 13 | 43 | 596 | 13.9 | 4 | 188 | 1.2 |
| 2019 | Jaylen Waddle | 13 | 33 | 560 | 17.0 | 6 | 342 | 3.8 |
| 2017 | Jerry Jeudy | 8 | 14 | 264 | 18.9 | 2 | 193 | 2.0 |
| 2017 | DeVonta Smith | 8 | 8 | 160 | 20.0 | 3 | 193 | 2.0 |
| 2017 | Henry Ruggs | 14 | 12 | 229 | 19.1 | 6 | 193 | 2.0 |
—Ian Allan