Report: Jameson Williams receives diagnosis on national championship injury

Alabama wide receiver Jameson Williams, who projects as the top wide receiver in the 2022 NFL Draft, suffered a non-contact knee injury in last night’s national championship loss to Alabama. And on Tuesday, Adam Schefter reported that Williams has received his diagnosis: a torn ACL.

Schefter said on Twitter that Williams suffered a torn ACL just months before the NFL Draft. However, he added that “doctors believe that, after surgery within the next 10 days, Williams will retain his sub 4.3 speed, and they expect a full recovery.”

Williams was a former five-star recruit via the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies, making him the No. 16 wide receiver and No. 1 recruit in the state of Missouri in the 2019 recruiting class.

Williams committed to Ohio State and hardly played in a two-year span, thanks in part to a crowded wide receiver room, and he managed just 15 total receptions in 2019 and 2020 combined. After transferring to Alabama, however, his draft stock began to soar immediately: he notched 79 receptions for 1,572 receiving yards and 15 touchdowns in 2021.

Williams is currently the No. 6 overall prospect in Todd McShay’s latest NFL Draft rankings.

Alabama loses Metchie and Williams — its two top targets — in season’s final weeks

Just weeks after losing John Metchie to a season-ending torn ACL in the SEC Championship game, Alabama’s already-thin wide receiving corps suffered another blow in the national championship: Jameson Williams went down with a non-contact injury late in the second quarter against Georgia, further dwindling the depth.

Alabama’s offense relied heavily on the duo throughout the regular season, so much so that Metchie and Williams made up 171 of the Crimson Tide’s 345 total receptions, as well as 2,649 of the team’s 4,704 receiving yards. But perhaps no statistic reveals Nick Saban and Bill O’Brien’s dependence on the wide receivers than their snap counts.

According to ESPN Stats and Info, entering the national title game on Monday, Alabama had run just 29 offensive plays all season without both Williams and Metchie on the field when the score was within 21 (the condition helps mitigate the factor of garbage-time snaps).