Why Detroit Lions' UDFA Isaiah Williams could be a breakout candidate in 2024 NFL season

Former Illinois wide receiver Isaiah Williams didn't hear his name called in the 2024 NFL draft but has since signed with the Detroit Lions. Williams emerged from the college all-star circuit and had a solid Shrine Bowl week. Formerly recruited as a four-star dual-threat quarterback, he made the transition to catching passes three years ago.

While Illinois put the ball in his hands to hit his fellow receivers a few times during stretch, he put up just under 1,100 yards and five touchdowns on 94 touches this past season, earning himself first-team All-Big Ten accolades.

The reason that teammate Casey Washington got drafted over him is likely that Williams is on the smaller end at 5’9”, 180 pounds and ran a 4.63 at the combine. To me, unless you look at the former as a pure special teamer, the NFL clearly took the wrong guy here.

Isaiah Williams is highly elusive off the line with subtle shifts or more violent sticks to gain positioning on the release. He puts the defender in trail technique off the snap pretty much and then he plays so much faster than his 40-time would indicate, to where you see him rapidly get on top of guys with that burst in slot fades.

Williams can accelerate through his cuts, packs some effective swipe-moves to create separation against tighter coverage at the break-point and consistently was friendly to his quarterback. His drop rate is a little higher than you’d like to see (7.0%) and his contested-catch rate is lower (35.3%), but he shows no hesitation in extending for the ball in traffic and you love what he provides after the catch.

Isaiah Williams already has that lower center of gravity to be efficient with his transitions and make more dramatic moves in the open field, but he also shows the balance to pull through wraps, forcing 51 missed tackles across 164 combined catches over the last two seasons.

How Isaiah Williams will fit with the Detroit Lions

Isaiah Williams, #1 of the Illinois Fighting Illini, scores a two-point conversion

Looking at this Lions depth chart, they just locked up Amon-Ra St. Brown as their “power slot extraordinaire” and they hope former first-round pick Jameson Williams can build on some of the flashes late last season as a field-stretcher. Meanwhile, Kalif Raymond is back for a fourth season in Detroit as someone who’s averaged 560 yards per year with them and has been their designated punt returner.

Beyond that, you’re looking at Donovan Peoples-Jones, who they traded a sixth-round pick to Cleveland for, but only averaged just over six offensive snaps outside of a meaningless Week 18 game. I kind of liked Antoine Green as a seventh-round pick for them last year, who was this vertical ball-winner for North Carolina, but the then-rookie only caught one pass for two yards.

The only other receiver currently on the roster anybody would even recognize by name is former Saint Tre’Quan Smith, who was bouncing between practice squads and was only active for one game last year. So there’s a pretty good chance Isaiah Williams makes it through the final cuts as this team’s WR5 at least.

Williams provides the YAC skills that this team is somewhat lacking and can be an extension of this run game, just like he was for the Fighting Illini, being a fly sweep threat, running backside bubbles or just creating microwave offense on screens.