Robert Saleh: Mike Williams has a 'long way to go' in ACL recovery, but Jets 'confident' he'll be ready Week 1
New Jets receiver Mike Williams expects to be ready to play Week 1, but head coach Robert Saleh cautioned against making assumptions about the wideout’s eventual takeoff in New York.
“Mike, he’s got a long way to go,” Saleh said last week, via SI.com. “He’s on the same timeline that Breece (Hall) had. They’re very similar injuries, same time frame. He knows he’s got a road to trek, but at the same time, if he does it the right way, we’re very confident we’ll have him ready for Week 1.”
Saleh mentioning Hall as the standard is notable. The Jets running back tore his ACL in October 2022. Despite expectations that the Jets would bring him along slowly in 2023, he blasted out of the gate with a 127-yard rushing performance in Week 1 and was carrying most of the load before Halloween.
However, the recovery time for a then-21-year-old RB is likely to be different than that of a 29-year-old wideout with an injury history.
Williams suffered his season-ending injury on Sept. 24, 2023, giving him a tad more runway than Hall had the previous campaign. After he inked his deal in New York, the wideout said that he expected to be ready for Week 1.
The Jets brass have maintained that timeline but pumped the brakes about how much they expect from the big-play receiver out of the gate. General manager Joe Douglas said last week the team didn’t expect him to be ready for the start of training camp.
The key date is Week 1, but any work Williams gets before that would be beneficial, particularly in building rapport with Aaron Rodgers.
“He’s got work to do, but excited if he can accomplish the work that he needs to accomplish, he’ll be a tremendous asset to not only himself but to the organization,” Saleh said of Williams.
