I do not know if you Lions fans have heard about Mike Williams and how he has lost weight and is on time for Titans meetings and may make there roster.
Posted by Mike Florio on May 10, 2008, 9:14 a.m.
On Friday, word came that former Lions receiver Charles Rogers — the No. 2 overall pick in the 2003 draft — is likely to sign with Montreal of the CFL. And now there’s an update on Mike Williams, the No. 10 selection in 2005, who also was drafted by the Lions.
Williams is a member of the Titans, and he knows that he’s down to his last chance in the NFL. He blames his struggles on the fact that he missed the entire 2004 season after jumping into the NFL draft after Maurice Clarett successfully sued the league for early entry — and then being S.O.L. after an appeals court reverse the ruling. Because Williams had hired an agent, the NCAA wouldn’t let him return to USC.
“I think what I lost the most wasn’t anything football related; it was the structure,” Williams told Terry McCormick of the Nashville City Paper. “Being a part of a routine and having a regimen and having a set schedule of being here for how long and being there for how long. That was my main thing that I struggled with for awhile. I struggled with it.
“I got better about it at the end of my first year, but the second year I got right back into [being late]. It was the structure. That was the main thing that hurt me, just the structure and waking up and commitment. What do they call it? Being a pro. Having a year off from that, that was the main thing that hurt me.”
Another thing that hurt Williams was his appetite. He has looked more like a tight end than a receiver during his three years of bouncing from the Lions to the Raiders and finally to the Titans. At 270 pounds when he came to Tennessee, coach Jeff Fisher told him that if he didn’t get in shape he’d be out the door.
Williams says that he has lost more than 30 pounds, and that he’s about ten away from his playing weight at USC. He thinks that his progress might have been a factor in the team’s decision not to select a wideout early in the draft. (The Titans picked Lavelle Hawkins of Cal in the fourth round.)
“I couldn’t control the draft. I didn’t know if they would take a receiver at No. 1. I just had to control what I could control and that was me coming back in shape and that would let them know that, ‘Hey, we might not have to draft one [early].’ I’m not saying that the way I came back made their decision not to draft one, and I’m not saying it did. But it didn’t matter if they drafted one or not, I’m going to compete regardless.”
More importantly, he’s showing up on time. He’s even coming in early.
And that’s fitting, given that it’s getting late for him to show that he can play at the NFL level.
