Lions wide receiver Jameson Williams has been suspended twice in his first three NFL seasons, but he’s not facing a third ban heading into the 2025 campaign.
The NFL told Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press that Williams will not face league discipline after being found with an unlicensed gun during a traffic stop last year. A league spokesperson said the matter is “closed.”
Williams was a passenger in a car driven by his brother in October and both men had guns. Williams’s brother was licensed to carry a concealed weapon, but Williams did not. He was handcuffed at the time, but not arrested and the handling of the incident led to further review by prosecutors.
Williams was never charged with a crime and the league’s decision means he’s clear to head into the 2025 season without anything related to the incident hanging over his head.
The trend of college programs poaching NFL front office personnel is continuing in Michigan.
According to Pete Thamel of ESPN, Jon Dykema is departing the Lions to become Michigan State’s executive senior associate athletic director/student-athlete management and assistant general counsel.
That long title means Dykema will negotiate and manage contracts for Michigan State athletics.
Dykema had been with the Lions for 15 seasons, the last four as director of football compliance/lead football counsel. He was in charge of overseeing the legal aspects of the team’s football operations, including negotiating player contracts and assisting with salary cap management.
Dykema graduated from Michigan State in 2003 and will now return to his Alma Mater. He served as a student manager for the men’s basketball team during his time as a student.
Lions defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard said this week that he wants the unit to be built around the defensive line and a key part of those plans will be a healthy Aidan Hutchinson.
The defensive end broke his tibia and fibula in October and his rehab has progressed to the point that Hutchinson is able to run on the field. Hutchinson posted video of himself going through a workout on Instagram Monday.
Hutchinson talked about making it back for the Super Bowl in December, but the Lions’ loss to the Commanders in the divisional round of the playoffs meant there was no chance to put that to the test.
If he can make a full recovery before the start of the 2025 campaign, it will be a big plus for the Lions’ chances of making a deeper postseason run next time around.
During Super Bowl week, Super Bowl LVI MVP Cooper Kupp disclosed that the Rams are trying to trade him. Although trades can’t become official until the new league year opens next month, tentative deals can be reached at any time before then.
In the two weeks since Kupp revealed that the Rams are trying, there have been no reports that the Rams have found any interested parties.
Kupp’s $20 million compensation package for 2025 becomes a potential sticking point, since his new team might not be willing to make the investment. Which means that the Rams might have to pay some of the money, or that Kupp might have to take less.
Kupp’s value will be driven by the role that his next team envisions. From Kupp’s perspective, he doesn’t believe he had fallen off. Instead, the Rams have pivoted to Puka Nacua as the team’s No. 1 receiver. Would another team install Kupp as WR1? If so, $20 million could be viewed as a bargain.
When Kupp plays, he still performs at a high level. But he has missed 18 games over the past three seasons due to injury. His production translates to 1,000-yard seasons in 2022, 2023, and 2024, if he’d been available for all 17 games. The durability issues since his massive 2021 season (145 catches, 1,947 yards, 16 touchdowns) could become a concern for 2025 and beyond.
He’s due a $7.5 million roster bonus on March 15, $5 million of which is fully guaranteed (with offset language, we’re told). A decision is surely coming before the full $7.5 million is earned and payable with no potential reduction.
It all comes down to whether a new team will take on the full $20 million and whether the Rams will pay some of it in order to get a deal done. If the Rams or the new team expect him to take less and he declines, an outright release becomes a potential option.
Regardless, Kupp seems to be destined to continue his career elsewhere. DraftKings has the Broncos are the current betting favorites, at +450. The Lions are next at +550, with the Commanders and Patriots at 650 each.
The Lions’ new offensive coordinator John Morton said this week that everything the team will do on offense starts with quarterback Jared Goff and their new defensive coordinator shared his building blocks as well.
Kelvin Sheppard was the team’s linebackers coach before being promoted to take over for Aaron Glenn and he said to Dan Miller of CBS 2 in Detroit that one of the challenges of his new job is “not trying to put everything around the linebackers.” Sheppard said that the priority will be on the front line of the defense and cited this year’s Super Bowl champion Eagles as an example of what kind of play you need on the defensive line.
“Everything you do on defense starts with the front,” Sheppard said. “Just look at the final guys in the championship game. And everybody knows. This is not [like] I’m telling some secret. It starts with the trenches in both the run and pass game. Everybody is so pass-happy nowadays, but if you really watch these games, it’s a lot of people going back to the roots of football, and that’s toughness in the trenches. You better have that. It starts there. I always say, ‘You have to earn the right to rush the passer.’ It doesn’t matter if you can get off the ball and be this glorified pass-rushing type player if you don’t earn the right to get to those pass-rushing downs. So, just making sure we find that fine balance in guys that can play the run and the pass, and making sure they gel with who we want to be because that supersedes everything.”
The Lions never got a chance to play the Eagles in the playoffs because they stumbled against the Commanders in the divisional round. If they get the chance in 2025, Sheppard wants them to fight fire with fire.