When Jameson Williams returns to the field for the Detroit Lions in the 2024 NFL season, the former Alabama wide receiver will be coming off the first two-touchdown game of his career.

In Detroit’s 34-31 loss to the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship Game on Jan. 28, Williams had two receptions for 25 yards and one touchdown and the longest postseason TD run by an Alabama alumnus with a 42-yarder.

Lions coach Dan Campbell said Williams did what Detroit wanted in 2023: “He progressed.”

“All we asked of him was growth,” Campbell said about Williams during a press conference at this week’s NFL Scouting Combine. “Just get better. Just get a little bit better and just become one of the guys, somebody that we can rely on in this offense. Just do your job. And that’s exactly what he did. And you can see by the end of the year, we really felt like he started to come into his own. He’s going to push to be a full-time starter now. And that’s what we’re looking for.

“We’ve said it before: Everybody grows at a different rate, and maybe it’s taken him a little bit longer. But he is developing and he’s growing and he is certainly one of the team. The kid’s come on. We got high hopes for him. We see him continuing to grow as long as he gets back and puts the work in like we believe he will, because he’s shown that. He’s only going to get better and better and better.”

In his first 15 NFL games, Williams had 14 receptions for 236 yards and three touchdowns. In the six games since, including three playoff contests, Williams had 17 receptions for 238 yards and one touchdown.

Williams joined Detroit as the 12th pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, but he played only 78 offensive snaps during his rookie season because he had sustained a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his final college game – the CFP national-championship contest for the 2021 season.

Williams wasn’t able to practice with his NFL teammates until Nov. 21, 2022, and made his debut on Dec. 4, 2022.

In 2023, Williams missed Detroit’s final two preseason games because of a hamstring injury, then he had to sit out the first four games of the regular season while serving an NFL suspension for violating the league’s gambling rules.

Williams wound up playing 444 offensive snaps in 12 regular-season games in 2023, then was on the field for 133 in three playoff contests.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.