Antonio Williams gripped the ball as it hovered just centimeters over the grass, then pulled it across the goal line and up toward his chest before he fell in the end zone. After tumbling and then rising to his feet, he turned to the crowd at Lincoln Financial Field and threw his arms up in celebration.
"It was surreal, man, when you're doing a celebration in front of the opposing crowd and you don't really see anybody dancing with you," Williams said Sunday night.
For Washington, Williams danced alone for much of the game during its season-opening loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. The Commanders' third-round rookie receiver was a bright spot during an otherwise lackluster showing by their offense -- especially their passing offense.
The team's top receivers, Terry McLaurin and Stefon Diggs, combined for only six catches, 69 receiving yards and a touchdown -- to go with three drops and one costly unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. The spacing of the receivers and their timing with quarterback Jayden Daniels seemed off for much of the game, and the team gained only 4.8 yards per pass attempt, the third fewest in the league in Week 1.
But Williams' 1-yard score with a little more than a minute left capped an impressive debut that included four targets, four catches, a team-high 64 receiving yards and the NFL's rookie of the week honors -- a feat made all the more notable considering he played only 11 passing snaps.
Williams' 2.36 expected points added per target led the league in the first week. He had a hand in all three of the Commanders' touchdown drives: His 16-yard grab on a post route against Eagles cornerback Cooper DeJean set up Jacory Croskey-Merritt's 1-yard touchdown run in the second quarter; his 33-yard catch on a third-and-14 helped set up Diggs' touchdown in the fourth; and his 14-yard catch on a crosser started the Commanders' final drive, which ended with his score.
"In the biggest moments, guys make plays like that," Daniels said. "He showed us all the work that he put in and the type of player that he is and how they scouted him throughout the draft."
Yet, the optimism around the former Clemson standout runs deeper than the singular Week 1 performance. From the start of rookie minicamp in May, when first-year players get merely a taste of the NFL lifestyle, to the end of training camp in late August, Williams' growth in Washington's system was unmistakable.
His versatility and polish as a route runner were two of his biggest selling points to the team when it drafted him with the 71st pick. But without a clear understanding of the offense and expansive playbook, such traits offer little.
"It's a big difference from college to the NFL," Williams said Thursday. "So I think once you know a playbook, know where to be, what to do, and read coverages and get on the same page with your quarterback, building that confidence just makes you play faster."
Williams joined a receivers room of mostly veterans and returning players, a circumstance that could easily intimidate a young player swimming in a new playbook. But learning from the likes of McLaurin and Diggs has seemed to only help him find his lane.
Williams' confidence began to show early in the summer, such as when he spun around safety Qwuantrezz Knight during a one-on-one rep in Ashburn, Va., when he caught an over-the-shoulder touchdown in a joint practice with the Miami Dolphins, and when he beat Baltimore Ravens cornerback Nate Wiggins and safety Kyle Hamilton during one-on-one drills in Owings Mills, Md.
"I didn't really have much of a routine in terms of coming in, preparing for practice, going through a walkthrough and then taking care of my body before practice and after," Williams admitted. "I think I've grown up in that way. We didn't have a lot of time to do that in college, but this is my job now."
Williams' performance against the Eagles was, in many ways, just the latest step in his progression. Showing out in Week 1 is another confidence builder, but the Commanders envision many more leaps ahead.
"The intricacies of offense, of being a receiver … it's how you win that stop. It's the manipulation, it's just the stem, it's things like that that you get from being around ballers or being around guys that play or study the game," Diggs said. "So I think that he's a student of the game, and being a superyoung player, you get excited when you see those things early."
Refining the details of his game will be an ongoing task for Williams, as it is with any young player. But if his trajectory continues on this path, Washington may have found a long-term staple for its offense.
"I think he's gonna be a great player in this league," Diggs added.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
