With Davante Adams, Garrett Wilson and Allen Lazard in the mix, there doesn’t appear to be much room for Mike Williams in the New York Jets‘ receiving corps.
Williams, who had seen only 17 targets over six games prior to Adams arriving, is rumored to be on the trade block up until the NFL’s November 5 deadline.
The speculation started after quarterback Aaron Rodgers publicly called out Williams for improperly running a route on a late-game interception. Subsequently, Williams was a non-participant for two practices last week due to personal reasons. While the receiver returned to practice on Friday and proceeded to play in the Week 7 loss to Pittsburgh, his short-term future with the Jets seems highly questionable.
The Pittsburgh Steelers reportedly have been interested as have the Los Angeles Chargers. Both organizations have apparently reached out to the Jets directly.
Outside of George Pickens, Pittsburgh appears to lack a go-to option for quarterback Russell Wilson and the Chargers seemingly lacked reliable receivers from the start after releasing Williams and trading Keenan Allen. Now that he’s proven to be healthy coming off ACL surgery, Williams could have plenty of appeal to the Chargers and his old quarterback Justin Herbert.
In the meantime, more suitors have potentially emerged due to unfortunate recent circumstances.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who have playoff aspirations in the NFC South, lost WR1 Mike Evans and WR2 Chris Godwin in the same game this last week. The latter is done for the season and Evan’s likely won’t be available again until Week 12. Williams could help alleviate some of the stress those injuries have placed on Tampa Bay’s offense.
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Although a different style player than Williams, the New Orleans Saints lost Rashid Shaheed to season-ending meniscus surgery and are said to be in the market for a proven pass-catcher. Meanwhile, the reigning NFC champion San Francisco 49ers are in need of another receiver after Brandon Aiyuk suffered a season-ending knee injury in Week 7.
With the ability to stretch the field, Williams, who has a 15.6 yards per catch career average, is a commodity that multiple contending teams could use at this point in the season. If the Jets don’t find value in keeping him as injury insurance, they should be able to flip him to a needy team in exchange for draft capital.
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