As injuries start piling up during the grueling NFL season, teams around the league have been making roster moves to fill their needs. This means that teams are bringing in veterans for workouts to evaluate if they still have enough gas left in the tank to at least contribute in the short term. Former Green Bay Packers running back Jamaal Williams has been a popular name in these workouts. After visiting with the Bears and the Dolphins before the season, Williams just had a workout with the Bucs on Tuesday. The result was unfortunately the same, as Tampa Bay signed RB Michael Wiley instead, per NFL insider Tom Pelissero.
Jamaal Williams Has Another Unsuccessful Workout Ahead of Week 7
Few players demonstrate the ruthlessness of the running back position in the NFL better than Williams. In the 2022 season, Williams became the Lions franchise record-holder for most rushing touchdowns in a season, running for 1,066 yards and 17 touchdowns. He ended up signing a three-year deal with the Saints in the 2023 offseason. Only two years later, the 30-year-old can't get a team to bring him on as a practice squad member.
Running back is a young man's game in the modern NFL. Teams rarely take a chance on rushers even in their late 20s, let alone one in their 30s. Considering how poorly Williams' tenure in New Orleans went, this may not be too surprising. In his first year there, he failed to score a touchdown until the final play of the regular season and averaged a career-low 2.9 yards per carry. In his second season in New Orleans, things didn't improve as he spent all year behind Alvin Kamara and Taysom Hill, only running for 164 yards on 48 carries, resulting in his release after the season.
It certainly feels like Williams' NFL career is coming to an end. Packers fans will best remember the former fourth-round pick from his last season in Green Bay. In the Divisional Round win against the Rams in the 2020 playoffs, Williams ran for 65 yards on 12 carries. In the NFC championship game against the Bucs, it was a quiet game for the talented rusher as the Packers were behind against the Bucs all game, and they eventually lost 31-26.
That marked the end of Williams' most productive Packers season, in which he put up 505 rushing yards and 236 receiving yards and a total of three touchdowns in 14 regular-season games. This earned him a two-year deal with the Lions, where he had the best stint of his career. Barring a miracle, it will remain the most memorable time of Williams' NFL career.