Lions wide receiver Roy Williams missed some recent organized team activities, causing speculation to stir about the reason behind his absence. After all, he is in the final year of his contract with the Lions, so missing only one team-related thing opens the floodgates for speculation. Some thought he was angry at the Lions, whereas others didn't think anything of it at all. In the end, the latter of the two was the right line of thinking as Williams simply had some flight issues keeping him away from Detroit.
Williams blamed bad weather near his home in Texas for his absences last week.
“I tried to get here two days in a row, and I just wasn’t coming for one day,” he said. “I called the coaches. They knew where I was at. So it wasn’t a big deal.”
What about Monday?
“That was my fault,” he said. “I booked it wrong. I booked it on the second instead of the first.”
Williams said he liked to run in the Texas heat and come to Detroit for team work.
“I’m an OTA guy,” he said. “I want to be here OTAs.”
Williams did finally catch a flight to Detroit and is with the team now. In Allen Park yesterday, he talked very candidly about his contract situation with the Lions. Although no talks of an extension have happened yet, Roy seems very upbeat about the whole situation and would welcome a new deal to stay in Detroit.
"They can talk to me whenever they want to," Williams said. "I'm like 7-11, baby. I'm always open -- even on the field."
"I'm making a lot of money this year," Williams said. "You can look it up. They owe me $5.8 million this year. I'm not missing (practices) because I'm mad at the Detroit Lions. I'm missing because my flights (from his home in Texas) got canceled.
"The money's going to be there. It's a win-win situation. They owe me $5.8 million this year, and the franchise will be 9 or 10. That's $14 million in two years.
"Every player wants a deal done. I would love to play here for a long time. But if they don't want to get anything done, I just have to go along with the business."
It'll be interesting to see how long this attitude lasts should the Lions start losing and/or no talks of a new contract ever happen. Although Roy probably would be ecstatic to not get a new contract if it meant he would leave Detroit, I would be shocked if he doesn't get the franchise tag. Even so, like he said, "the money's going to be there." Whether it is an extension with the Lions, a franchise tag contract, or simply a free agent deal, Roy is going to get paid. That is for sure.