At just 17 years old, Ryan Williams was one of the breakout stars of the 2024 college football season. The true freshman caught 48 passes for 865 yards and eight touchdowns, and as a former five-star recruit, he could have gone anywhere he pleased in the transfer portal.
That type of freshman season provides a player with quite a bit of leverage in the NIL and Transfer Portal era, but Williams never attempted to wield it, never entered the portal, and has reportedly returned to Alabama for under $2 million this season.
Sources have told ON3’s Pete Nakos that “Williams is making north of $1.8 million this season.” That figure is the second highest for a wide receiver in the country, trailing only Ohio State's Jeremiah Smith.
NEW: Alabama WR Ryan Williams is set to make north of $1.8M this season, 2nd most in CFB for WRs, @PeteNakos_ reports📈
— On3 (@On3sports) September 9, 2025
Williams told On3 in an interview that Jeremiah Smith “had the better season last year … this time around, I hope I can flex.”https://t.co/jQzq1APtyh https://t.co/eLwx5brUtR pic.twitter.com/7hAd9KwqoU
While that may seem like a lot for a sport where amateurism was held up as the holy grail by the NCAA, while McDonald’s bags full of cash changed hands on official visits, what’s staggering about that report is that Williams is still underpaid for his value to the Crimson Tide.
Ryan Williams making $1.8 million in the 2025 season
What’s unclear is if that is Williams’ NIL salary and he is also making additional money from the revenue-sharing paid directly from Alabama’s athletic department, or if that figure factors in all streams of revenue. If that’s the all-in total for Williams in 2025, it’s easy to argue that he took a significant discount to return to Alabama, instead of transferring to Texas, Texas A&M, or any of the other more robust NIL spenders in the country.
Tuscaloosa doesn’t quite have the donor base that of the Texas schools, even Texas Tech, which is tapping into the oil money in West Texas to attempt to construct a Big 12 contender out of thin air. Alabama will have a tough time competing with those programs, so it’s a big win for Courtney Morgan and Kalen DeBoer to get Williams back at a number that is reportedly north of $1.8 million but is also likely to be south of $2 million.
Williams struggled in Week 1 against Florida State, finishing with three drops before being knocked out of the game with a concussion and missing Week 2. Still, he figures to be one of the country’s most prolific pass catchers this season as an 18-year-old and still has another season of eligibility before heading to the NFL draft.
Williams is the caliber of player that a coaching staff can construct its entire passing game around, with his rare body control making him a uniquely dominant contested catch player for his size, and his quickness allowing him to be a threat with the ball in his hands. Those types of players are some of the most valuable in football, and it sounds like Alabama has him at a bit of a bargain for 2025.