When the Detroit Lions missed the NFL playoffs during wide receiver Jameson Williams’ rookie season in 2022, it was business as usual for the franchise.

The Lions hadn’t participated in the postseason since 2016 and reaching the need for a tiebreaker with the Seattle Seahawks before missing the playoffs provided a rare buzz of excitement for Detroit that would become the norm in 2023 and 2024.

Those seasons featured postseason trips for the Lions and, in 2023, included Detroit’s first playoff win and trip to the NFC Championship Game since the 1991 campaign. In 2024, the Lions posted the NFC’s best regular-season record at 15-2.

But Detroit’s 2025 season ended on Sunday with a 9-8 record after a 19-16 victory over the Chicago Bears.

“I’ve been talking to a couple of my people,” Williams said on Monday. “I just been saying, like, this actually feels worse than my rookie year when I came in because, like, I actually knew at the last game that was my last game for the season. My rookie year, like, we had a chance going into the game, and we was still, like, going for something. But it was just kind of different this year.

“I wouldn’t say it was down or anything, but it just felt different. But like coach said, it’s just fuel to the fire, man. We going to come back. We going to have it on our back, a chip on our shoulder, and we just going to get done what we got to get done next year.”

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Williams missed the first nine games of his rookie season because of a knee injury sustained in Alabama’s 33-18 loss to Georgia in the CFP national-championship game for the 2021 season. As a first-round rookie, Williams had one reception – a 41-yard touchdown.

In 2023, Williams served an NFL-imposed gambling suspension for the first four games. His production climbed to 24 receptions for 354 yards and two touchdowns in 12 regular-season games, followed by six receptions for 79 yards and one touchdown and a 42-yard touchdown run in three playoff games.

In 2024, Williams served a two-game suspension for violating the NFL’s Policy on Performance-Enhancing Substances. But in the other 15 regular-season games, Williams had 58 receptions for 1,001 yards and seven touchdowns.

In 2025, Williams had similar averages as in 2024, but he played in every game. This season, Williams had 65 receptions for 1,117 yards and seven touchdowns.

“It was a fun season,” Williams said. “You can’t take away the fact that we went out there and bought in and had fun. It didn’t come out the way we wanted to, but, you know, I had a lot of fun out there making plays, winning games with my brothers, and, you know, that’s the most important thing – winning. We had a lot of fun, though, going on the road. It couldn’t get no better than this. This is what I dreamed of my whole life, being in the NFL. Next year, we just got to fix things and get better.”

Detroit tied for the fourth-most points scored in the NFL during the 2025 season, when the Lions offense collected the fifth-most yards in the league. In 2024, Detroit was the NFL’s highest-scoring team and produced the second-most yards.

“I just know we just got to make more plays,” Williams said about returning to the postseason in 2026. “I really think that’s our main thing. If we make more plays, we’ll be in a better position right now. Probably wouldn’t even be doing this media right now. We’d be getting ready for a game this weekend. So, overall, we just got to make more plays.”

On the first day of the season, the Lions announced they had signed Williams to a three-year contract extension. The $80 million deal could keep the wide receiver in Detroit through the 2029 season.

“I try to work on getting better every day,” Williams said. “I’m trying to be the best, most complete receiver. That’s my goal, so from last year to today, I could just say I got better. I couldn’t tell you how much. I put in work every day.”

This offseason, Williams said he wants “to get stronger, for sure.”

“That’s my main thing: I just want to get stronger,” Williams said. “… I’m talking about, like, I just want to, you know, like when I go through traffic on routes getting pushed over, I just need to be able to hold my weight a little bit.”