Troy Williamson

The Jacksonville Jaguars seemed to have traded for a 6'1 203 pound wr, who runs the 40 in 4.32 seconds, and who has a 37 inch vertical. Most people would say that looking at that, that the Jaguards have found something special, a talent that could make their offense more explosive and more dynamic. However there's a "catch", the wr's name is Troy Williamson, and the problem is he honestly cannot catch a football.

Back in 2005, the Minnesota Vikings traded away all-stud, insanely good and possibly the best wr of all time, Randy Moss, to the Oakland Raiders. In return for this awesome talent, the vikings got almost nothing, in lb Napoleon Harris, the 7th overall pick back in 2005 and a 7th round pick later in that draft. With that #7 overall pick, the vikings drafted the heir apparent to the now gone Randy in, the aforementioned Williamson. Williamson, who has blazing speed has always been said to have a TON of potential. The man can fly and has the ability to separate from the defender, and can even jump up and get the ball in the air. The only problem is, he cant seem to bring that ball into his hands and hold onto it. In his first year,

Williamson had 24 catches for 372 yards and only 2 tds. He was given a pass as he was a rookie and rookies tend to have trouble in their first year. However, in his 2nd year, Williamson was only able to muster up 37 rec for 455 yards with 0 tds. Then in 2007, Williamson was only able to catch 18 balls for 240 yards and 1 td. He also had 9 drops in the past year, and 11 drops the year before that. Which means, that in the past 2 seasons he dropped more balls than he caught in 2007. Thats pathetic. I can think of one game, opening night against the Redskins back in 2006, in which Williamson had beaten his defender. Brad Johnson (yes he was their qb then hahaha) threw up a perfect pass that hit Williamson perfectly in his bread basket only to see Williamson let the ball drop right through his hands. The play would have resulted in a td and probably would have allowed the vikings to run away with the game. This was a common sight in Minnesota and thus the Vikings have given up on him and traded to the Jaguars, and back to Mike Tice.

Ironically it was coach Tice who was heading up the vikings back in 2005 when Williamson was drafted. Now it seems that Tice, Jacksonville's Assistant Head Coach/Offense has decided that he can bring the potential out of Williamson. Tice, whose nickname around the league is meat head, wasn't able to do much with williamson back in 2005, and the chances that he can now are pretty slim. Williamson will be added to an already poor wring core in Jacksonville. Those include, converted qb Matt Jones, underachiever Dennis Northcutt, former 4th round draft pick Ernest Wilford, and 2004 1st round draft pick Reggie Williams. None of these wrs scare anybody, and although they all have size, with Jones being 6'6, Reggie being 6'4 and Ernest being 6'4 as well... none of them have caught more than 62 passes in a year, (Northcutt back in 2003), none have caught more than 806 yards (again northcutt back in 2004), and none have caught more than 7 tds (Wilford back in 2005) other than Williams who had 10 this past season, which was a pretty impressive feat. 1/ almost every 4 catches for Williams was a td last season, which shows that the kid has potential, but then again he was still only able to catch 38 passes for only 629 yards, so really minus his td total, a very average-poor year.

While Williamson might seem like a good idea, as he is only 24, has only 3 years of nfl experience, has blazing speed and has an impressive vertical leap, he has proven over the last 3 years that he really cannot catch the football. It is not that he hasn't tried to improve his hands, as this past off-season he went out and caught 10,000, an impressive feat, however he dropped the very first pass he was thrown to. People have claimed that his hands are not the problem, that he has had poor vision throughout his nfl career. While that may or may not be true, I do not think that his sight really could be that big of a problem. You see the man makes millions of dollars a year, and if his sight really was the problem, he would have went and fixed it. Why would he go 3 seasons knowing his sight was bad, knowing that he has had trouble catching balls and then not go and fix it?

Well, Williamson finally did get eye surgery this offseason, and he has now been given a 2nd chance with the Jaguars. If it works out, Tice and th Jaguars might have found themselves a star. A player who will consistently force teams to double team him, and will open up the field for Reggie Williams, as well as Mojo Drew and Fred Taylor. The Jags have little to lose in this deal, as Williamson doesn't pan out, they would have simply thrown away a 2nd day draft pick, most likely a 5th rounder, which usually does not produce anything special. Thus, while most of us KNOW Troy will never learn to catch, the Jags have made what could possible be seen as a steal come next season. Who knows, maybe next year at this time, I'll be saying what a great trade this was and comparing it to the Pats trade this past season, for coincidentally, Randy Moss

picture from profootballtalk.com