Williamson: Minnesota is in the past

[VikAiRious]

June 7th, 2008 – 9:44 PM by Judd Zulgad
An interesting story by the Associated Press out of the Jacksonville Jaguars’ minicamp today. Former Vikings receiver Troy Williamson, traded to the Jaguars for a sixth-round pick, is very happy to be out of Minnesota.

“I’d say it was very important [to leave the Vikings] because it was getting very intense up there as far as me and the head coach and some of the other coaches,” said Williamson, who was plagued by dropped passes in his time with the Vikings. “I feel like I just need to play football, be me and be comfortable in the situation.

“I had some good times in Minnesota. I can talk highly, but it can also go both ways. I’m here now and Minnesota is in the past. It’s time to get to work and do what I have to do to help the team.”

The funny, or maybe sad, thing about the AP story is it talks about how Williamson was spending extra time on the field catching passes. You might recall that last spring the same things were being written about Williamson as he stayed on the field after practice so he could work on catching passes.

I was talking to somebody today about Williamson and pointed out that while things did not workout in Minnesota it wasn’t for lack of effort by the Vikings. Granted the franchise had plenty to lose by seeing the seventh-overall pick in the 2005 draft fail, and thus it was a good idea to make an investment in seeing if things could be turned around, but the vision consultants from Nike couldn’t have been inexpensive.

It will be interesting to see if Williamson can turn things around in Florida. One thing we know from watching him, however, is that just because you can make all the catches on a practice field in May or June doesn’t mean you’ll be doing the same thing when it counts in December.