There has been a great deal of discussion about Roy Williams' status with the Lions in 2009 and beyond.  He is in the final year of his contract, and the Lions are going to have to decide what they want to do with him.  The options range from re-signing him to franchising him, letting him simply walk, and trading him.  Right now the latter of those options seems like the smartest move, and honestly, I think it's time for the Lions to do something.

The NFL's trade deadline is October 14, which is less than a week away.  It is expected that the Lions will receive some offers for Roy Williams.  I assume they've already heard offers ever since this past offseason, especially around draft time when many expected a move to be made. 

The Lions have also reportedly been on the other side of things and offered to trade Roy Williams as well.  The reason no deal has ever been close to happening, though, is because the Lions wanted Dallas to give them defensive end DeMarcus Ware, and they wanted a pair of first-round picks from other teams.  Those are awfully high asking prices, so it isn't a surprise that there has been little talk of anything happening.  Factor in the fact that Dallas isn't in the market for a receiver right now and you can understand why even the rumor mill has been fairly quiet.

I think at this point it is becoming pretty obvious that one way or another, Roy Williams will not be a Lion in 2009.  I have my doubts that he will be traded in the coming days before the trade deadline, but I really do think that a move needs to be made.  The bottom line is that his value can only go down at this point, and it is not likely that the Lions would get more out of him at a later time.  Considering that his departure from the team would not affect the way things are going this season anyways, there isn't any big reason to keep him around.

Beyond the fact that his value is dropping with every week that goes by, Roy Williams needs to be traded simply because his antics are becoming increasingly more annoying.  Roy has always spoken his mind, and as a result, he has said some pretty dumb things in the past.  On top of that, he has done some pretty dumb things on the field as well, specifically this past Sunday against the Bears.

Williams has had trouble catching the ball this season and the stats show that.  Against Chicago he had four drops, one of which resulted in an interception being returned for a touchdown.  To make matters worse, he has been called for offensive pass interference three times this season.  Despite all of those mistakes, Roy still decided to celebrate a catch that resulted in a first down, even though the Bears were smoking the Lions.

I have been able to deal with all of those annoyances as they aren't unusual for Roy.  However, his antics in the second half against Chicago when Dan Orlovsky was the quarterback have sent me over the edge.  Orlovsky was having trouble throwing the ball accurately, and every time a pass was thrown off target (when Roy was the target), Williams threw his arms up in the air in disgust and proceeded to complain once he got to the bench.  At one point he even ripped off his gloves and seemed to utter the words "I'm done" to a teammate.

I understand that players get frustrated, especially receivers on a winless team that don't have a good quarterback.  But that is no excuse to act the way Roy did on Sunday.  I wouldn't have as much of a problem with his actions if he was actually playing well.  However, Roy has been terribly inconsistent this season and has done nothing on the field to warrant any right to criticize others.  If Orlovsky's passes were thrown accurately, chances are Roy would have dropped them anyways, so he has no room to complain.

As good of a player Roy Williams has been at times in the past, he simply isn't contributing anything positive to the Lions right now.  He gets penalties called against him and drops passes every game, and quite frankly, those two things alone should be reason enough to get rid of him.  It goes deeper than that, though, once you consider his big mouth and complain, complain, complain attitude.  He does seem like a good guy and has done good things for the Lions, but the only thing he can do for this team now is get them draft picks.  There is probably no way he would get a first-round pick anymore, but something is better than nothing, and right now nothing is what Roy Williams is bringing to the Lions.