Chargers wide receiver Mike Williams retires at age 30

Mike Williams (YouTube)

There was rather surprising news in the National Football League on Sunday according to Charles Robinson of Yahoo! Sports. That is because veteran wide receiver Mike Williams of Vance, South Carolina, has retired at the age of 30.

Williams had just signed a one-year deal worth $6 million with the Los Angeles Chargers on March 12. This past season with the New York Jets and Pittsburgh Steelers, Williams only had 21 catches for 298 receiving yards and one touchdown. The major score came in a 28-27 Steelers win over the Washington Commanders. It was a dramatic victory for the Steelers, as they won the game on a 32-yard touchdown pass from Russell Wilson to Williams with two minutes and 22 seconds left in the fourth quarter to close out the scoring and give Pittsburgh the win.

Williams is best known in the NFL for his time with the Chargers from 2017 to 2023. After being the Chargers’s first round pick, seventh overall in the 2017 NFL Draft out of Clemson University, Williams played the next seven seasons in Los Angeles, and was a prolific force in the Chargers’s offensive attack. Twice he eclipsed 1000 yards receiving as he had 1001 yards receiving in 2019, and a career-high 1146 yards receiving in 2021. During the 2019 NFL season, Williams had a career-high 20.4 yards per catch which led the NFL.

In Williams’s career he had 330 catches for 5104 receiving yards and 32 touchdowns. He also had 10 rushes for 34 rushing yards and another major score. The rushing touchdown was for 19 yards and came in a 29-28 Chargers win over the Kansas City Chiefs on December 13, 2018.

Now the Chargers are going to have to figure out who will replace Williams. He was expected to be a top wideout option this season for quarterback Justin Herbert, as Ladd McConkey has emerged as the Chargers’s top wide receiver option.