ESPN NFL

Posted by ESPN.com's Paul Kuharsky

Williams

Titan fans holding out hope that Mike Williams would produce for Tennessee in a way he hadn't in Detroit or Oakland got the news Thursday afternoon that he will not.

Jim Wyatt reports that Williams has been cut.

Williams made progress between the end of the 2007 season and the start of the offseason conditioning program by dropping about 30 pounds. But Jeff Fisher said after that there was still plenty of work to be done.

Apparently Williams didn't accomplish it all.

He had a USC connection with Norm Chow, who was the Titans' offensive coordinator last season when the team brought Williams in on Nov. 22. It didn't take long for Chow to decide Williams wasn't going to help.

Many of us concluded Williams actually got a second chance when Fisher fired Chow and brought back Mike Heimerdinger as his replacement. It appears Williams didn't win him over, either.

I had heard after OTAs were completed that Williams might not make it to training camp. Instead, he got a week.

Former Jets receiver Chris Davis, is expected to get Williams' roster spot.

Wyatt also spoke with Byron Leftwich, who threw to Davis and other receivers in a closed workout.

The quarterback said he felt like he impressed Tennessee. But the Titans indicated before the workout they had no plans for changes at quarterback, where they have Kerry Collins and Ingle Martin working behind Vince Young.

UPDATE: Post practice comments from Jeff Fisher from the transcript the Titans sent out:

We released Mike Williams today. I just wasn't seeing the production and when you get in a situation where you don't see the production and you have a young group of receivers that are emerging, I felt like it was in the best interest to let him go at this point. Hopefully Mike can hook on someplace else.

(On the reason Williams was cut)
It was just a combination of things, and we just weren't getting it from him. Too many drops. Unfortunately for him, we've got a good group of receivers that are competitive and getting better and we just weren't seeing improvement so we moved on.

(On Williams' potential)
Well he's had potential, he still has potential, hopefully he'll realize it someplace else.

(On whether Williams should try to learn a different position)
If we would have thought he would have better served at tight end, then we would have moved him to tight end.

(On whether he felt bad about cutting Williams after spending extra time with him)
I didn't invest any extra time in him. We brought him in at the end of the season and we were very explicit about what we wanted to have happen before he returned. He worked towards that, but never really met those criteria.