A crunch-time Mike Williams slip played a key role in the Jets losing to the Bills on Monday night, perhaps pushing the Davante Adams trade across the goal line. With Adams en route to New York, the team is looking to find a trade partner for Williams.
Some around the league are wondering if the Jets will gauge Williams’ trade value, according to veteran insider Josina Anderson, and Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio adds that is indeed happening. The Jets are attempting to trade the recent free agency pickup, who is tied to a one-year deal worth $10MM.
Signing Williams shortly after his Chargers release, the Jets waited for the former top-10 pick to be cleared from his ACL rehab. The team has since used the eighth-year veteran on 53% of its offensive snaps. A fit with Aaron Rodgers has proven elusive, and Allen Lazard — a player who had fallen to healthy-scratch status in 2023 — has largely usurped Williams in Gang Green’s target tree. Williams has just 10 receptions for 145 yards through six games.
Last week brought rumblings of this path forming for the Jets, who are now 2-4 after a game that featured an open Williams slipping on the MetLife Stadium turf as Taron Johnson swooped in for a pivotal interception. With desperation sinking in, the Jets have both acquired Adams for a conditional third-round pick and may well be ready to end the Haason Reddick impasse with a trade as well. Williams is now part of this equation, with Adams — after three missed games due to a hamstring injury — in play to suit up in Week 7.
Postgame, Rodgers said Adams ran the wrong route on the play that ended a potential Jets go-ahead drive. Quarterbacks regularly take blame for wideouts’ mistakes, but a candid Rodgers did not in this particular instance. Rodgers doubled down during his Pat McAfee Show appearance Tuesday, indicating (h/t ESPN.com’s Rich Cimini) Williams “wasn’t in the right spot.” In the coming days, Williams may well be tasked with learning another team’s scheme.
The Panthers and Steelers also scheduled Williams meetings this offseason, but the WR’s Jets visit producing a deal nixed both. It is now worth wondering if Pittsburgh, which has been connected to a receiver trade in the months since, would still be interested.
The Chargers had made the Clemson product part of their route back to cap compliance, cutting Williams first and then trading Keenan Allen to the Bears. The Jets had pursued Allen as well. Months later, two-thirds of their starting WR corps figures to include ex-Packers. Lazard, who caught Rodgers’ latest Hail Mary effort Monday, has 26 receptions for 354 yards and five touchdowns this season. Lazard’s five TD catches lead the league, coming after he scored all of one TD in 2023. The Jets have Lazard tied to a four-year, $44MM deal; they passed on cutting the former UDFA due to his 2024 base salary being guaranteed.
Williams has two 1,000-yard seasons on his resume, the most recent coming in 2021, when Justin Herbert became the AFC’s Pro Bowl starter. Williams totaled 1,146 yards and nine touchdowns that season, being used more as a midrange target compared to a deep weapon. The 6-foot-4 wideout had been tied to a three-year, $60MM Bolts deal entering 2024, but back and knee injuries hampered him during his final years in Los Angeles. A prior history of nagging injuries will also factor into Williams’ trade value.
The 30-year-old receiver will not come close to fetching what Adams did in a deal, and with $6.47 of Williams’ base salary remaining, the Jets may need to take on some of that amount to boost trade compensation. The Jets can aim for a Day 3 pick, and Williams may be the next WR dealt on a market that may or may not include DeAndre Hopkins, Christian Kirk, Diontae Johnson and Amari Cooper. Some significant movement could commence ahead of this year’s deadline (Nov. 5).