Jameson Williams walked onto the stage for the first time ever for a post-game interview, and it was clear he was still beaming from his impressive 2024 debut. He was still clutching the “Sunday Night Football” Player of the Game ball he received after the game, and he still had that ear-to-ear smile that defines Williams’ friendly personality.

“I’ve never done this before,” Williams said with that grin, referring to the post-match press conference.

There were a lot of firsts for Williams on Sunday night. It was the first time he played in a Week 1 game. It was the first time he played more than 70 percent of the team’s offensive snaps. It was the first time he had more than 100 receiving yards (the previous record was 69), and it was the first time he had more than half of the team’s receiving yards (55.8 percent).

And according to Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell, that’s just the tip of the iceberg for Williams.

“The best part about it was he didn’t even play his best ball. There’s still so much to clean up, but it also shows how much work he’s put in,” Campbell said. “He’s improving, and he’s an improved player, and he wants it, and he keeps working at it. And he just keeps, he keeps taking these steps. So as long as he keeps doing it, and keeps playing, he’s just going to get better. So yeah, I’m proud of him, I’m proud of where he’s at, but he’s got so much room to keep growing.”

It seems important to point out that this was only Williams’ 12th career start of his young career. He may be entering his third season, but he’s still relatively inexperienced — and he’s still only 23 years old. He just completed his first full training camp, and this will be his first season as the team’s de facto No. 2 receiver behind Amon-Ra St. Brown.

And yes, Williams doesn’t intend his 121-yard performance to be the pinnacle of his powers.

“I’m expecting a big match personally. I think it’s just a big match for the world because it’s my first,” Williams said. “But I plan on playing many more. I don’t expect this to be the best match of my career. I expect this to just be the start of being myself.”

Having Williams as a legitimate threat is such a key part of this offense, and Sunday night against the Los Angeles Rams was a perfect example of why. The Rams defense held Amon-Ra St. Brown (13 yards) and Sam LaPorta (45) to nearly the entire game. No other wideout managed to muster a single target from Jared Goff. But that’s the way an offense is supposed to work. When a defense focuses on taking away a weapon or two, the other weapons step up.

“That’s just our offense. We knew we had stats from the beginning, we have players, one guy doesn’t get going, we have other people to lean on,” Williams said. “The offense, shout out to (offensive coordinator) Ben (Johnson), he called the right play(s), he knows the right situation to put us in. It was out there like in and out of St. Brown a lot, double-decker him a lot. Somebody else has to make the plays, and I just made the plays when my number was called.”