Williamson’s future bleak in Minnesota

By Jonathan Mohr  |   Friday, February 22, 2008  |  Comments( 6 )

Minnesota Vikings
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Troy Williamson can't catch.

That's a problem for a wide receiver playing football at any level. For a player in the National Football League, it's something more. Words like inexcusable and negligent come to mind. But, in this case, they apply more to Williamson's team, the Minnesota Vikings, than they do to the player himself.

It's not like Williamson, who had 91 receptions in his career at South Carolina, rewrote the record books during his time in college then suddenly forgot how to hold onto the ball once he made it to the next level. Williamson turned in a good performance at the 2005 NFL Combine -- most notably a 4.32 time in the 40-yard dash and a 41.5-inch vertical leap -- causing his draft stock to shoot up and teams that should have known better to overlook his underwhelming college career.

What was he going to do, turn down the more than $13 million in guaranteed money the Vikings offered after drafting him seventh overall that year?

By all accounts, Williamson's worked hard to correct his almost comic inability to hold onto the ball during his time in the league. He catches thousands of passes in the offseason. And, when the Vikings thought a flaw with his vision might be to blame for his ongoing problems securing passes high school receivers routinely catch with ease, Williamson worked with specialists from Nike who started him on a series of exercises designed to help him see the ball better in flight.

But those efforts don't seem to have paid off. Williamson, who was drafted with the pick the Vikings obtained from Oakland in the Randy Moss trade, played in 11 games this past season and had a total of 18 receptions.

He had two huge drops in the final game of the year, one where he was in the clear by 20 yards and would surely have scored. But what was most disturbing to fans on that play wasn't that Williamson dropped the ball in a game with playoff implications, but rather the awkwardness with which he attempted the catch.

Williamson looked like someone with vision problems. He looked like the European exchange student who has played soccer all his life and isn't quite sure which way to hold his hands as the ball comes winging toward him.

For his career, Williamson has 79 receptions and three touchdowns.

Those are the numbers of a journeyman receiver. They're the stats of a guy who, entering his fourth season, has barely made a mark, a guy who will be fighting for a roster spot in each and every training camp.

They're certainly not what the Vikings envisioned on Draft Day 2005. But when local sportswriters and longtime fans are sincerely comparing Williamson to Dimitrius Underwood -- another first-round pick who lasted exactly one practice with the team -- as the biggest draft bust in team history, it appears his time in Minnesota has run its course.

In hindsight, it's obvious that Vikings' officials were either sloppy in their evaluations before the draft and simply missed the fact that Williamson had questionable pass-catching skills, or were so in love with his physical tools that they become overconfident about their abilities to polish away his rough edges.

Either way, the Vikings' mistake has thrust Williamson into a role for which he looks less and less suited every time he's given the opportunity to do his job.
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About Jonathan Mohr

A lifelong Vikings fan, I live in the Twin Cities area (about a mile from Winter Park) and work as an editor at a boating magazine. As with all long-suffering Vikings fans, I patiently look forward to the day when Minnesota finally breaks through and wins a Super Bowl. Until then I eat my...
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