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Earlier this year, the Vikings bailed on receiver Troy Williamson, the No. 7 overall pick in the 2005 draft, sending the guy who was supposed to be the next Randy Moss to the Jaguars for a sixth-round pick and a stapler that can’t take more than five pages at a time.
Maybe the trade is exactly what Williamson needed to finally blossom as an NFL player.
According to Vic Ketchman of Jaguars.com, Williamson is playing like a guy who can catch, man. (Yeah, it’s lame. But we couldn’t resist it.)
Says Ketchman: “I saw things from Troy Williamson the past couple of weeks I haven’t seen in a long time. Was this a tease? I really don’t know what to think. You see a guy play as he has and you wonder what went wrong with his former team. The Vikings aren’t stupid. What the heck happened there?”
What happened was that Williamson couldn’t catch the ball on a consistent basis. Which resulted in reduced opportunities to catch the ball. Which placed even more pressure on him to catch the ball when he got a chance to do so.
Thanks to the magic that is YouTube, here’s an example of Williamson’s performance in Minnesota. And another. And another.
But this one is arguably the worst.
June 17th, 2008 at 10:24 pm
It was the same story last year with Dennis Northcutt, another “dropsies” receiver, who magically turned into a sure-handed receiver in Jacksonville (yes, he had that one bad drop in the playoffs, but that especially stood out because of how little he dropped all season).
Maybe Garrard just throws a nice, catchable ball. Kinda hard to explain.
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Rating: 3.5 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
June 17th, 2008 at 10:32 pm
Three words–shorts, no pads. I might be impressed when he makes a catch with the Jax defense bearing down on him.
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Rating: 4.5 / 5 with 4 rating(s)
June 17th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
The youtube clips are classics !
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Rating: 4 / 5 with 3 rating(s)
June 17th, 2008 at 11:23 pm
My only surprise was that Tavaris got the ball to him!
Adrian Pederson is gonna make them just good enough to keep Brad “Ol’ Festus” Childress from getting fired. GO PACK!
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Rating: 1.65 / 5 with 3 rating(s)
June 18th, 2008 at 12:12 am
Too bad you don’t have the clip of the time the ball hit him on top of the helmet on a deep pass.
Every year we heard the same stories like these about Troy. His vision was corrected. He was catching 200 passes a day on the jugs machine. His confidence was shaken, but now he’s confident. He catches everything in practice. And every year, once the games started, he’d wouldn’t just drop passes — he looked like a 10 year old trying to catch the football.
He was such a non-factor that opposing teams didn’t bother do any more than simple single or zone coverages on the guy who was supposed to stretch defenses. Tavaris Jackson got blamed for not having better passing numbers, but he could have had at least 300-400 more yards and about 4 more TD passes if Troy would have caught about half of the passes he dropped (not to mention safeties would have come off the line off scrimmage to give Adrian Peterson more running room, and a lot more pass plays would have gone to Williamson’s direction if he just had average hands).
And when the Vikings wanted to take advantage of his speed by having him return kickoffs, he ran scared. He’d run up the middle and start to go down as soon as the first tackler approached.
So Jacksonville fans, don’t let stories like these get your hopes up.
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Rating: 4.5 / 5 with 4 rating(s)
June 18th, 2008 at 12:29 am
This reminds me of when people were raving about Fred Smoot’s performance in camp back in 2006, which ended up being his last in Minnesota somehow. Maybe it was his lone interception while starting 14 games, but the int was off of Favre, so it was basically a freebie.
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
June 18th, 2008 at 12:45 am
Bgman speaks the truth. There was all this B.S. last year how he was working out at NIKE or something to work on his hand eye coordination and garbage like that and how he was ready to have a breakout year - yeah right.
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
June 18th, 2008 at 2:37 am
I think they should’ve got more for the stapler.
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
June 18th, 2008 at 3:46 am
Ok I feel compelled to weigh in on this on. I have watched Troy Williamson every training camp. Analyzed and took notes of almost every play to dissect where there were successes and breakdowns. Over zealous fan…Meehh. Troy is a blessed athlete he has decent size, lighting speed, runs good routes. And yes he can catch the ball… Just not during a game. while he’s wide open. Look at the tapes the few catches were in coverage and usually fairly athletic. Nike Vision says that it was an eye focus issue, and to correct it he caught like 20,000 balls on his own time. I think the issue is more in his head. Some think that coach Childress was being insensitive to Williamson not paying him for the game he decided to not show up. On the surface that does seem heartless. But really his grandmother passed away on a monday and all that was expected of him was to be there the following sunday. I’m sure if he was not in the right frame of mind that the coach would have sat him. all he had to do was show up and be with the team on sunday. All of those millions of dollars are being paid for really 16-19 days a year. Anyways this is neither here nor there and im rambling. I think Troy has a heck of allot of potential and if he can get over the dropsy’s he could still have a successful career. Well its 2 am and the nytol is kicking in good night.
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Rating: 4 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
June 18th, 2008 at 3:56 am
I actually think that Williamson is going to break out now that he’s moving from a first option to a slot man behind Williams and Porter. Honestly, even at the two spot, I still think he’s got the speed to make a lot of corners pay, and he’s likely to see more favorable matchups with that speed on Jacksonville than he was on the Vikings (even when teams stacked the box, Williamson saw the number one corner and a safety). The whole pass attack that the Jags are developing kind of fascinates me actually, considering that every single member (even perennial crybaby Matt Jones) is a first day pick with first day athleticism. Fun to see how it plays out.
Wrote a thing on this here…
http://throwingintotraffic.blogspot.com/2008/06/set-pieces-jacksonville-and-island-of.html
PS: I like Tarvaris Jackson, but Garrard is like Tarvaris only with more accuracy and fewer bad decisions.
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Rating: 3 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
June 18th, 2008 at 6:53 am
I wonder what would have happened to Jackson had Williamson caught the deep pass he threw him against Green Bay in his first start. Conditions were terrible, just an ugly game, but Jackson showed flashes of mediocrity in his first start. He biffed it just like the play in the clip, and it was like you could hear Jackson’s confidence hit the Frozen Tundra. He catches it, he likely isn’t getting caught from behind, and the Vikings win that game in an otherwise forgettable season, but it would have given him something on which to hang his hat.
That sort of sums up Williamson’s career in Minnesota. He isn’t able to make his quarterback better. As you see on this play, it’s not a question of how open he can get, he just doesn’t catch the deep ball.
Considering that’s what he is built to do, the stapler is probably of more value.
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
June 18th, 2008 at 8:40 am
My question is this: What were Minnesota’s receivers coaches doing? this video just looked like horrible technique to me. Aren’t receivers supposed to extend their arms and catch with their “hands” instead of letting the ball get to their chests? Did he just not listen to coaching with the Vikings or did they not bother to teach and emphasize proper technique during practice?
Is it a coincidence that all Vikings receivers since Randy Moss have pretty much sucked?
I wonder.
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
June 18th, 2008 at 9:09 am
All-Pro during practice means nothing. There was a reason Williamson was wide open in the Denver game–he was not a credible deep threat under game conditions. I hope he overcomes whatever has held him back, because he showed much more class in leaving Minnesota than did his “class”mate Erasmus James. He could have taken his shots, to excuse his lack of performance, but he didn’t and seems to be making every effort to succeed in Jacksonville.
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Rating: 4 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
June 18th, 2008 at 9:34 am
He catches about as good as I do. They only problem here is I am unathletic and he makes a boatload more than me.
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Rating: 1 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
June 18th, 2008 at 9:39 am
If Williamson does have or has had problems with his vision, then I have a great deal of compassion for him. I can relate to that. Not everyone is blessed with perfect genes. Some people unfortunately are just dealt a bad hand. I do hope he turns his career around and that he becomes a huge success.
I wouldn’t lump Williamson in with some self-absorbed athletes that go out and party all the time and who may view their chosen profession as a mere inconvenience.
It appears to me that Williamson is trying very hard to be a success and turn things around. He deserves praise, not ridicule.
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June 18th, 2008 at 9:40 am
“Don’t throw it to Stonehands!”
/end obscure movie line
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June 18th, 2008 at 10:26 am
I wanted Troy to succeed so badly. And he did–badly.
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
June 18th, 2008 at 11:44 am
There are another 3-4 critical drops out there from 2005 - Against @Buffalo, @Miami, Chicago and @San Fran he dropped late fourth quarter passes and the team subsequently didn’t get a first down, and they lost all four games.
He is a good kid, but he just lacks the maturity to be an NFL WR off the field and the fortitude to perform like on on the field. Not a question of gifts, just one of his mind.
I just hoped he saved his money.
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
June 18th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
What do you mean, the Vikings aren’t stupid. Show me some proof to the contrary. They have one of the top three RB’s, two all pro Defensive tackles, a top 5 defense against the rush and all they could do was 8-8.
Childress is a living example of the Peter Principle among NFL head coaches. Thank god he is employed in the NFC North is all I have to say.
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Rating: 2 / 5 with 3 rating(s)
June 18th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Williamson has the worst hands I have seen in a long time. Gifted athlete that can fly, but he just cannot hold on to the ball. I dont believe this ios a vision problem as most of these passes were right at him. I just think he was always able to get by just because he was faster than everyone else at the collegiate and high school levels. In the NFL you cant have passes bouncing off your hands like that, especially when you have a young QB trying to get better and boost his confidence.
He seems like a decent kid, but you really can’t teach someone to catch a ball. I think hes got 2 years left in the league tops
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June 18th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
You’re forgetting about the one that bounced off his face in the Packers game
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