Jameson Williams suffers non-contact injury in national championship

Alabama’s offense, which is already suffering from injuries, may have lost yet another tool in Jameson Williams.

Williams, a star wide receiver for the Crimson Tide, went down with a non-contact injury in the second quarter of Alabama’s national championship contest with Georgia. His injury came shortly after Alabama lost wide receiver John Metchie to a torn ACL in the SEC Championship.

Alabama scored a field goal on its first drive then punted twice — and on the fourth drive, the Crimson Tide got off to an excellent start thanks to Williams. On first-and-10 from Alabama’s own 26-yard line, quarterback Bryce Young dropped back in the pocket and found Williams wide open in the middle of the field for a big 40-yard gain. However, shortly after crossing midfield, Williams was met by a Georgia defender and appeared to buckle his knee as he made his way to the turf.

The severity of Williams’ injury remains unclear. After a short stint in the medical tent, Williams emerged and began walking on the sideline on his own power. He then went straight to the locker room with the trainers.

At the time of his injury, Williams had four receptions for 65 yards, the latter of which led all Alabama receivers.

Losing Metchie was a blow in itself, and Young went so far as to say that Metchie is “someone that you can’t replace.” At the time of his injury, Metchie led all Alabama receivers with 96 receptions, good for 1,142 yards and eight touchdowns. He became one of just 13 receivers in Alabama program history to eclipse the 1,000-yard receiving mark in a single season, and paired with Williams, the duo was the second such Alabama wide receiver combo to each notch 1,000 receiving yards.

Metchie, a junior, has 155 receptions on his Alabama career, good for seventh-best in program history, and after taking over as Young’s No. 1 receiver in 2021 he shined — Metchie was named to the All-SEC second team. And in his absence, Alabama was relying on Williams to fill a huge void.

While Metchie led the offense in receptions at the time of his injury, Williams led the team in receiving yards when he left the national championship with a non-contact injury. He had 75 receptions for 1,507 yards and 15 touchdowns, averaging an incredible 20.1 yards per reception. A transfer from Ohio State, Williams broke out after having just nine receptions for 154 yards and two touchdowns last year.