Week 1 is the right time to make mistakes, so long as they don't come back to haunt you at the end of the season. While it wasn't perfect and it definitely wasn't pretty, the Detroit Lions survived a close one to get their first win of the season.
However, as important as it is to win, Dan Campbell and company also have to dig deep into the tape to identify areas for improvement. They won't have to find much to learn what went wrong with Jameson Williams, though.
Williams drew rave reviews all through training camp, and while he didn't play a single preseason snap, he was the talk of the hour in Detroit for reportedly working on his hands. That didn't seem to be the case in Week 1, as he dropped a baffling three passes.
The Detroit Lions need much more from Jameson Williams
Williams led the league with 12 dropped passes last season. Suffice to say, registering 25 percent of that in a single game — the first game of the season, mind you — is far from ideal, especially since that was a point of emphasis for him in the offseason.
Granted, Williams still played a significant role in the win, logging a big catch in overtime to set up what ultimately was the game-winning touchdown. Even so, the tape and the numbers were vastly underwhelming for a player of his caliber.
Williams finished the game with four catches on nine targets for 45 yards and no scores. The passing game as a whole looked a bit rusty, which makes sense given that the starters — including Jared Goff — sat through the preseason. They should be better, and that includes Williams, but it was still a disappointing performance.
Williams could be most teams' WR1, at least on paper, but it's time for that to stop being theoretical or hypothetical, and he actually prove it on tape. Consistency and drops remain a concern with the former first-round pick, and you never know what version of him you'll get.
Week 1 can be deceiving, and teams usually aren't as bad or as good as they looked in their first game of the season. That said, some problems simply can't be overlooked, especially those that have haunted a team/player for years.
The Saints deserve all the credit in the world for how they managed to make this a close one. Plenty of that also falls on the Lions' shaky secondary, but things won't get any easier on September 17 when they visit Josh Allen's Buffalo Bills for a Thursday Night Football matchup.
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