Williams Remains Damaged Goods
July 7th, 2014
Joe’s been keeping track of blade-in-the-thigh, mattress-in-the-yard, stripper-pole-friendly Mike Williams ever since the Bills coughed up a sixth-round pick for him in April.
They’ve been loving Williams up in his hometown Buffalo.
Highlight catches from OTA days made it to the Bills’ official website, and Joe heard sports radio praise of Williams for his effort and (gasp) eagerness to mentor super rookie Sammy Watkins.
(No, Joe never bought the wacky ESPN report that circulated this spring claiming Williams might have a hard time making the Bills roster. For one, Williams has a guaranteed contract, and those guys don’t cut unless they do something really stupid. Plus the ESPN reporter was claiming Williams might lose the job on the field.)
But what does intrigue Joe is how Williams recently told the Buffalo News that he’s not close to healthy following hamstring surgery last fall.
Williams said he’s at about 80 percent in his recovery from surgery to repair a torn hamstring. Initially, his practice workload was bigger, but the injury began to give him trouble as spring practices wore on.
“We started off where they threw me out there and I was just going every rep, and then the leg started getting to me,” he said. “Then they started holding me back more and more. But then I started getting my leg back.
“I’m almost there. Like, I keep telling them I’m at like 80 percent, they telling me I’m at 70 percent. We going back and forth, but I think I’m getting there. With this month right now until camp, I think I’ll be 100 percent coming into camp.”
So Williams is a wide receiver with a bad wheel. Last Joe checked, those guys don’t perform well and kudos to Jason Licht for landing a high sixth-round pick for him. That selection turned out to be speedster slot receiver Robert Herron, who flashed a lot of talent during spring practices, though he had plenty of drops early in OTAs.
Even if Williams is “80 percent,” that’s injured. And hamstrings have a nasty habit of lingering. Joe wishes Williams well.
July 7th, 2014 at 10:42 am
Did his brother do the surgery?
July 7th, 2014 at 10:55 am
Eric,
You be trippin’, but your wit is special! Lol.
July 7th, 2014 at 10:55 am
Does this mean Joe will Retract his previous statement of those that wanted Mike (house-party) Williams trade or cut should be sterilized???
July 7th, 2014 at 11:07 am
Joe never said that. Please. Injuries are a different animal. If the guy’s 80 percent in June, that is what it is. A hurt receiver is of little value.
July 7th, 2014 at 11:17 am
Really depends on how deep the tear was, if it was really a deep inner hamstring tear, that could take up to a year to be completely healed as they have to go in and stitch the tear together and then allow for it to heal, key is not putting to much stress on the tear while it’s healing.
July 7th, 2014 at 11:30 am
the bills said Mike Williams was good at stabing the ball out the air and practice.whatever that’s supposed to mean
July 7th, 2014 at 11:45 am
Joe, why do you think you need to throw in all these qualifers when you write a story about someone? Do you think it makes you sound smart? If that’s the case let me be the first to tell you that it doesn’t. It makes you come off as a whiny, bitchy, know it all.
Joe’s not sure what you’re talking about. Regardless, Joe’s been writing the same way here for nearly six years. The style won’t change. –Joe
July 7th, 2014 at 11:55 am
Really…Him mentor Sammy Watkins. “Hey, lets go to my brothers place. We’re playing darts.”
July 7th, 2014 at 11:57 am
his hamstring injury did not slow him down when he was running stop signs and redlights in Tampa.
July 7th, 2014 at 12:06 pm
Why no story about Johnny Manziel getting caught rolling up a bill to do extra curricular activities?
Same reason Joe hasn’t written about Manziel since the draft, outside of the “Morning Cup of Joe” links and a couple of references as it related to his best buddy Mike Evans. Johnny Football is not a Buccaneer and has no chance to be one anytime soon. –Joe
July 7th, 2014 at 12:12 pm
I’m talking about the POPCORN-MUNCHIN, AIR-BREATHING, WATER-DRINKING, FOOT-HAVING, BORING-ASS crap you have to write in damn near every article.
July 7th, 2014 at 12:30 pm
Joe
Just 18 more days and all of this will be over. Since you brought up the subject of LBs, have you had a chance to talk to Hardy about them and what are his thoughts, if he told you any. Plus what is going on with Rachel?
Here’s a link to Joe’s last chat with Hardy Nickerson. https://www.joebucsfan.com/?p=114300 –Joe
July 7th, 2014 at 12:38 pm
@Jason
What’s wrong with that?? Joe mentioned he’s been doing it for 6 years so if its been bugging you get used to it. Sides it was makes JBF unique that is a casual site. My favorite it captain of the inactive list Michael smith.
On Topic
If we drafted Mike and still held on to Mike Williams how would we look like? Hoping for MW to get well faster as we will need him. With the rookies and replacements now we are hoping for similar or better performance with no wait time of healing or risk of being re-injured. I hope for the best to Mike, but we are better off without him, on paper of course.
July 7th, 2014 at 12:45 pm
The injury is exactly the reason why we traded him, imo. And his lifestyle (if he’s partaking in the parties he throws) is not conducive to speedy recovery and maintenance….jmho.
July 7th, 2014 at 12:59 pm
good call dropping him, but thanks for the memories Mike.
he actually earned his fat contract before he got it. i.e. a 4th round pick and didn’t get paid much before that.
dude came to work everyday and produced. got a bum wheel, still tried….no crybaby BS like some players.
best of luck to him.
July 7th, 2014 at 1:05 pm
Selling on the fact the injury was the sole reason for the trade. A factor? Sure, maybe so, but
Williams had plenty of other baggage piled on the cart.
I posted when they cut him that Lovie was/is a Dungy disciple, Licht a Hoodie disciple. Yeah, lots of patience for guys who act like football is their hobby.
July 7th, 2014 at 4:55 pm
Never realised how much he looks like Chris Rock. I have no hard feelings toward Mike. He made some exciting catches for us while here. Hope he can get back into the swing of things and do some stuff for the Bills.
July 7th, 2014 at 5:26 pm
It wasn’t too long ago that I read several posts in here that the bucs couldn’t afford to trade house party as if he was the next jerry rice or megatron.
July 7th, 2014 at 7:08 pm
This is what I said when we traded him. Blown tire for somebody who was already slow .
July 7th, 2014 at 7:40 pm
Eric Says:
July 7th, 2014 at 10:42 am
Did his brother do the surgery?
Damn that was funny. Made my day!
July 9th, 2014 at 10:35 pm
@Jason
Do you think writing comments bashing joe make you sound cool? Funny? Or even smart? Cause they don’t. They make you sound like a whiny little bitch