Who Should I Start? Jameson Williams or Ricky Pearsall

Friday, July 3, 5:25 AM

Detroit Lions wide receiver Jameson Williams finished as the fantasy WR5 over the final 10 weeks of the 2025 season, and while many are quick to point to the absence of tight end Sam LaPorta as the driving factor behind his late-season breakout, there's evidence of his leveling up even before LaPorta was placed on injured reserve with a herniated disc. The two games following Detroit's Week 8 bye proved to be LaPorta's final two outings of the season, but they were also arguably his most productive two-game stretch of 2025, totaling 150 yards on 11 catches while reeling in one of his three touchdown grabs on the year. In those two games, the start of his end-of-season run of dominance, Williams caught 10 passes for 185 yards and two scores, finishing as the WR14 and WR3. With LaPorta expected to be healthy again for 2026, the Lions are likely to deploy more of the two-receiver sets from which Williams has proven to be a dynamic weapon. If Williams can find more consistency in his fifth season, an expectation expressed publicly by wide receiver coach Scottie Montgomery in one of his final media sessions of minicamp, the 2022 first-round pick could pick right back up on the 82-catch, 1,400-yard, and nine-touchdown pace with which he ended 2025, and he should have little trouble outproducing his current ADP as WR26.