Shannon Sharpe puts Alabama receiver Ryan Williams on blast: 'Not even the best receiver on his own team'

A year ago Alabama wideout Ryan Williams was a breakout star and the talk of college football. It was the year of the freshman receiver, with both Williams and Ohio State‘s Jeremiah Smith exploding onto the scene in their first year on campus.

But while Smith remains in Heisman Trophy conversations, Williams has all but disappeared from the national discussion. It’s not that he’s terrible, either, he just isn’t matching last year’s play.

“Something is going on with Williams. Ryan Williams is not the same, Ocho,” former NFL tight end Shannon Sharpe told co-hosts Chad Ochocinco and Johnny Manziel on the Nightcap podcast. “He’s not. He’s not, Ocho. He’s not. You see it, I see it, Johnny sees it. Everybody sees it. And don’t give me this, ‘That offensive line hasn’t been good all year.’ I don’t want to hear nothing about no offensive line. ‘Well he ain’t got no receivers around him. Oh he got other good receivers around him.’ So does Jeremiah Smith. And Jeremiah Smith shows up every week and he makes plays.

“Ryan Williams, I don’t know if he’s injured, I don’t know if he has something going on outside of football. I just know the guy that I saw last year, I don’t even recognize this guy right now.”

As a freshman, Williams recorded 48 catches for 865 yards and eight scores. He also rushed for 48 yards and two scores.

So far this year he has hauled in 39 passes for 573 yards and four touchdowns. He has one carry for 16 yards.

And it’s not so much that Ryan Williams isn’t producing as much as he just isn’t producing in the same spectacular manner. He was a game-changer a year ago. This year he’s just a guy.

“I’m not sure what’s going on, Unc,” Ochocinco said. “It has to be something away from the field, something off the field. I hope he didn’t allow the stardom, the fame, in such a short amount of time, to get to him, where he has somewhat of a lack of focus and forgot the basic fundamentals of how you got where you are right now.

“To be as young as you are, you should be legitimately the second-best college football receiver in football. Period. Not even close. I mean behind Jeremiah Smith.”

Manziel quickly disagreed with that take, pointing out that right now Ryan Williams is hardly in the top 10 of college receivers. And that might be generous.

Sharpe went in even further on the Alabama standout who is, well, not standing out quite as much these days. He was blunt.

“I tried to tell Ocho this, Johnny: He’s not even the best receiver on his own team,” Sharpe said. “(Germie) Bernard is better than he is. (Isaiah) Horton is playing better than he is. I get what he is and maybe what he is translates better to the NFL.

“But right now, if you don’t know anything about it and you just watch these guys play, just watch them play this year, and you don’t know anything about Ryan Williams, you don’t know what he did last year. There is no way you’re thinking 2 is better than 1 and 5. Zero chance.”