Fooch's Update: Adam Schefter is reporting the Bucs will start Mike Williams in spite of his DUI arrest early this morning. I'd make a snide comment about this but I don't know enough to say one way or the other whether this is kind of a joke on the part of Raheem Morris and the Bucs organization. I don't know enough so I certainly would never call them out for apparently having no problem enabling such behavior.
Fooch's Note: Thanks to Drew K for getting this posted as a FanShot, but I definitely want to expand on it in a full post.
This weekend's game has taken an interesting turn following events of last night. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers leading receiver, rookie Mike Williams, was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence. His blood alcohol level was under the legal limit but he failed a field sobriety test and was subsequently given a urine test that would indicate they thought he might be under the influence of marijuana, or some other drug.
Initially Adam Schefter was reporting that a Bucs source indicated Williams would start on Sunday while another source was saying he would not play. If the urine test comes back positive before kickoff then I'd imagine he would sit. However, if the urine test hasn't come back yet, one has to wonder how the Bucs handle it. They could take the Braylon Edwards approach and bench Williams to start but let him play after a certain number of quarters.
If Williams doesn't play this is a huge loss for the Bucs. Williams has been QB Josh Freeman's primary target by a long shot. Williams has 40 receptions for 627 yards and has been targeted 75 times. The number two pass catcher is Kellen Winslow with 39 receptions, while the number two and three wide receivers at this point are Sammie Stroughter with 15 receptions for 177 yards and the master of the Taser, Micheal Spurlock, with 14 receptions for 225 yards. You remove Williams from the equation and that changes things fairly dramatically in terms of the receivers at Freeman's disposal. The 49ers defense could focus a bit more on the run and stopping LeGarrette Blount, while keeping Freeman from getting too mobile.
Of course, the 49ers have found ways to turn mediocre receivers into super stars so we certainly can't get ahead of ourselves at this point. And given Josh Freeman's performance this year, the absence of Williams would give us a better idea of how good he really is at this point in his career. But it would certainly be nice to have the matchup made maybe a little bit easier on Sunday. Maybe it would lessen the amount of "respect" the 49ers would get from the national media, but who cares. The 49ers need wins, not respect. I'll take wins any way I can get them.