Getty Jonathan Williams runs against the Texans.
The Detroit Lions don’t have a depth problem this season at running back, so they made a move to free up a spot on their practice squad by cutting one.
Tuesday, the Lions released Jonathan Williams from the squad to start the week. Williams had been signed a few weeks back during camp, but didn’t make the team’s initial roster but had hung around on the practice squad. Now, he will be a free agent once more after Detroit has elected to move on.
#Lions have released RB Jonathan Williams from the practice squad.
A month ago, the team signed Williams. The Lions worked Williams out, liked what they saw, and decided that the time was right ahead of camp to sign the running back to the roster to add to the depth at the position. Running back Wes Hills was waived as part of the swap at the time. Now, though, Detroit has depth with Kerryon Johnson, D’Andre Swift and Adrian Peterson in the mix. At this point, there were simply no more carries to go around.
Williams comes to Detroit after playing his college football at Arkansas. In the NFL, he’s seen time with the Buffalo Bills, Denver Broncos, New Orleans Saints and Indianapolis Colts before being released this offseason into free agency. He’ll have a chance to latch on somewhere else again now.
Jonathan Williams Stats
Just 26, Williams has plenty of time left in the league and might have just gotten his feet wet toward making a big impact in 2019. Out of his 329 career rushing yards, 235 came late in the 2019 season with the Colts where he was activated and showed out big time. Despite that, the Colts didn’t bring him back for 2020, and Williams sat as a free agent until he was scooped up by the Lions.
Williams’ path to the roster might be narrow in Detroit considering the running back depth on the roster, but he will be able to give the team some quality snaps in the meantime and serve as depth in the new COVID world, where players could theoretically be lost off the roster at any time with the illness.
Lions Loaded at Running Back
Why cut Williams now? Detroit has a solid player on their team currently in Kerryon Johnson that they are developing. Johnson, however, has run into a few issues with injuries the last few years, so the team was looking for someone else that can be a solid running mate for Johnson moving forward. On the roster, Ty Johnson remained but still, the Lions were looking for someone else to build around. That’s why they felt as if they may want to target the draft, which is where D’Andre Swift came in. The team then pulled a surprise and signed Adrian Peterson just before the season began and he has run strong thus far.
Currently, the Lions are very deep at the position. They elected against the thought that they needed any more at this point, which is why Williams got released. It’s possible the team could look to fill his spot with another offensive lineman or cornerback, both spots which have seen significant injury in recent weeks.
The hope for fans is this health can remain, because the team does not need a depth crunch like happened late in 2019.