The Jets wide receiver room is losing a former first-round pick.
Gang Green is trading wide receiver Mike Williams to the Pittsburgh Steelers for a 2025 fifth-round pick.
Williams, 30, was in his first season with the Jets after signing a one-year, $15 million deal in free agency. The former No. 7 overall pick spent his first seven seasons with the Los Angeles Chargers, where he accumulated 4,806 receiving yards on 309 receptions and 31 touchdowns in the air.
The Jets hoped the Clemson product could provide a deep threat and a red zone target to a team that already included Garrett Wilson and Allen Lazard, but Williams was unable to gel with the Jets offense and Aaron Rodgers.
In six games this season, Williams has 12 receptions (on 21 targets) for 166 yards and no touchdowns. He had one target in his the team’s first two games, understandable considering the Jets were easing Williams — who suffered an ACL tear a year prior — back onto the football field. But after a high-water mark in Week 4 against the Denver Broncos where he caught four passes for 67 yards, the production has not been there.
In the following two weeks, Williams caught two passes against the Minnesota Vikings and none on three targets against the Buffalo Bills.
After their Week 6 loss to the Bills, Rodgers told reporters that William ran the wrong route on the deep pass late in the fourth quarter that was picked off, which ultimately sealed the loss for the Jets.
“It was two verticals,” Rodgers said after the loss on Monday Night Football. “Allen [Lazard is] down the seam, Mike’s down the red line. So I’m looking at Allen, he puts his hand up, three guys go with him. So I’m throwing a no-look to the red line. And when I just peek my eyes back there, he’s running an in-breaker. So. Um, it’s gotta be down the red line.”
Less than 24 hours later, the Jets traded for Davante Adams, which squeezed Williams out of playing time.
A day after the Adams trade, Williams did not practice due to “personal” reasons.
With the Jets at 3-6, their playoff hopes aren’t completely dead just yet, but general manager Joe Douglas decided now was the time to trade Williams and get something back for the veteran who wasn’t able to make the impact the team hoped for when signing him this past offseason.
