Williams preparing for the 2008 season

THURSDAY, JUNE 5

Wide receiver Roy Williams has been in Michigan for some of the team’s offseason conditioning program. Obviously, he was in Allen Park for the mandatory mini-camp in mid-May, but he has also worked out at the team facility and participated in some of the OTA sessions.

When he isn’t in Michigan, Williams spends his time in his hometown of Odessa, Texas and has been working out there as well.

Williams: “Offseason conditioning’s been great. I’ve been down in my Texas heat. I work out throughout the day. I’m in ‘Power Cuts’ class, which is weight aerobics, and that’s at 5:50 in the morning. So I’m in there getting my Richard Simmons on in the mornings and lift weights in the afternoon. Then I run again in the evening. The offseason has been going real good.”

When it comes to running, Williams has actually called his teammates to reference what the team is doing in Allen Park.

Williams: “I run in the afternoons. I change that up depending on what these guys are doing up here; I try to call my teammates and see what they did and run what they ran. I’ve also got some Nike stuff – a parachute and (other things) – to work on my explosion off the ball. I do a lot of different variations.”

The Lions are looking forward to the consistency of bringing their top four receivers back from a year ago: Williams, Calvin Johnson, Shaun McDonald and Mike Furrey.

But who those players line up against during OTAs and mini-camp practices has changed and Williams has definitely taken notice.

Williams: “It’s a little different. I won’t say that we upgraded players because I don’t want to downgrade anybody. Fernando Bryant was my guy. But we’ve got Leigh Bodden – a real good football player – Dwight Smith is real smart back there and Brian Kelly is as smart as they come. We’ve got three good guys in the back; that’s going to help us win. Out here practicing I try to get on those guys talking about how old they are; especially Brian Kelly, I talk about how old he is. But those guys are real smart and they’re going to help us out.”

Of course with every Williams’ compliment comes a little jab here and there.

Fifth-year cornerback Keith Smith – who actually came in with Williams in 2004 – has mentioned the benefit of going against big receivers such as Williams and Johnson.

When asked about the positives of going against a talented secondary, Williams couldn’t help but stick up for his own position group.

Williams: “I mean, they can’t cover us out here but they try. Keith does a really good job of playing the deep ball; I don’t think anybody can catch a deep ball on this guy. He shut me down and Calvin down on the deep balls. But other than that, they can’t cover us out here. We’re too big, we’re too good and we make them look small.”

Now that the week is over, the Lions are looking ahead to four more OTA practices. Williams has headed back down to Odessa and is planning to continue his workouts prior to training camp at the end of July.

Williams: “I’m just going to keep doing my workouts. I’ll be out in the sun more because it’s going to be 100-degrees-plus in Texas. So I’m going to get out there and get my sauna work in; running at the same time and get my wind up so when I come to training camp guys will be breathing hard and it won’t be hard for me.”




MY THOUGHTS
Roy has to thank Martz for his much improved off season training program. When he came into Martz's first training camp he found out how much he hadnt done in the offseason. It also shows what kind of team player Roy is. You arent hearing about him being pissed off and bitching to the media. He is calling the guy's who are at the OTA's and running the same as all of them. I wish he was with the team as well as they do but at least he is doing the same activities.