When veteran wide receiver Mike Williams signed a one-year deal with the New York Jets in free agency in March, the move was expected to give a sizable boost to the new-look Jets offense led by a now-healthy Aaron Rodgers under center.
Turns out, that didn’t exactly happen. Williams saw just 21 targets with the Jets and played only 53% of their snaps offensively. Those numbers dwindled after the Jets swung a big trade for Davante Adams ahead of Week 7 against the Pittsburgh Steelers. That seemingly put Williams on the trade block, especially after some critical comments from Rodgers to the media after the Week 6 Monday Night Football loss to the Buffalo Bills in which Williams seemingly ran the wrong route on Rodgers’ game-sealing interception.
Three weeks later, Mike Williams is a member of the Black and Gold after a trade Tuesday from the Jets to the Steelers for a 2025 fifth-round pick. The move gives the Steelers a nice boost at receiver and gives them another big, physical downfield threat to work with in the passing game.
For Jets interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich, things just didn’t work out with Williams in New York for many reasons, both from the team and from Williams’ perspective. But he said the move to Pittsburgh is a good one for Williams, whom Ulbrich believes will have more opportunities in the passing game.
“[Didn’t work out] for a lot of different reasons. I think at the end of the day, we gotta look at this as an opportunity now for Irv [Charles] and [Malachi] Corley and Zay [Xavier Gipson] to get more involved with our offense, you know?” Ulbrich said of the Williams trade to the Steelers, according to video via the Jets’ YouTube page. “So, for whatever the reason, for a little bit of us, a little bit of him, a little bit of everything.
“But it’s a great opportunity for him too to go out there and in Pittsburgh and get an opportunity to maybe get more targets, be more involved.”
In New York, the work just wasn’t there for Mike Williams. He hadn’t seen more than three targets in a game since Week 6 against the Bills. Since Rodgers expressed his frustration with Williams’ route on the game-ending interception against Buffalo, Williams saw a combined four targets in the last three games.
Now, he’s off to Pittsburgh, where Rodgers believes Williams will have more opportunities and be good for the locker room, much like he was in New York.
For Williams, he’s stepping into a good situation, one with an offensive coordinator in Arthur Smith who knows how to scheme things up and finds ways to get the ball to playmakers in Pittsburgh this season. He’s also stepping into a situation with a quarterback in Russell Wilson who is seemingly a better leader than Rodgers, both on the field and behind the scenes, and might be more welcoming.
Williams fits into Wilson’s play style perfectly, too, as that downfield threat who wins in contested-catch situations. That will come in handy when Wilson uncorks his moon balls moving forward, where Williams should be able to win through contact, much like he has throughout his career.
