Throughout the 2024 season, it was obvious that the Pittsburgh Steelers wanted so as to add extra receiving assist round George Pickens. In an effort to take action, they traded a fifth-round decide to the New York Jets in alternate for Mike Williams. Apart from a game-winning landing reception simply after being acquired, Williams didn’t make a lot of an influence. In accordance with Steelers insider Brian Batko, he would have preferred to be extra of a focus within the offense.
“I talked to Mike Williams a number of occasions after he came to visit from the Jets, and I by no means received an inkling that he wasn’t wholesome,” Batko wrote in his weekly chat with the Pittsburgh-Publish Gazette. “He was virtually begging for extra alternatives. They might have misevaluated how effectively he may nonetheless play after they gave up that decide for him, however I can’t fault them an excessive amount of. On the time, it made a number of sense to usher in one other piece for the offense, notably a field-stretcher for Russell Wilson’s deep ball.”
It’s unclear if Batko means Williams expressed that want to the staff, or simply to Batko himself. It’s comprehensible, although. Apart from that aforementioned landing reception in opposition to the Commanders, Williams was largely quiet by his 9 video games as a Steeler. In whole, he solely noticed 13 targets. Nonetheless, he did benefit from them. Williams caught 9 of these passes for 132 yards, a median of 14.7 yards per reception.
The 2024 season was a foul one for Mike Williams usually, although. He went so far as to say so himself. Sadly, he got here to Pittsburgh simply earlier than the staff collapsed in dramatic trend. Williams’ first sport within the black and gold was that win in opposition to Washington. However just some weeks later, the Steelers went on to lose their final 5 video games.
There have been numerous causes for that, similar to there have been loads of the reason why Williams was so quiet. One was poor quarterback play. Russell Wilson’s faults grew to become a lot clearer because the yr went on. Apart from deep balls and checking the ball down, he couldn’t get a lot of something going. There had been additionally disagreements between Wilson and Arthur Smith, which may solely have damage the cohesion of the whole offense. Pittsburgh didn’t set up the run as a lot as it could have preferred, making issues more durable on the passing sport.
On the finish of the day, neither Williams nor the Steelers had the ending they might have preferred. If Williams had gotten extra alternatives, as he needed, perhaps issues may have been completely different. He wasn’t nice, however he caught 9 of the 13 passes that went his means and didn’t drop any of them. If Pittsburgh may have vaulted him into that WR2 position, perhaps the tip of the season would have been a unique story.
Mike Williams ended up signing with the Los Angeles Chargers this offseason. A couple of days in the past, he determined to retire.
