I will be interested to see if Kyren Williams can carve out a role with the Rams. He’s just a fifth-round pick, but he brings a different dimension to the backfield.
I imagine Cam Akers and Darrell Henderson (in that order) will be the leading rushers for the Rams, but Williams is a lot better than those guys in the passing game. He’s better in pass protection, and he’s a better receiver. He caught 42 passes last year at Notre Dame.
Williams can also run some (he went over 1,000 rushing yards in his last two seasons with the Irish) but I believe they’re looking at him as a third-down option, coming in for obvious passing situations. While he would run some draws, his role would primarily be to serve as an outlet type receiver.
The Rams haven’t had one of those backs recently. Instead, they haven’t used their running backs much at all in the passing game.
Below see the team pass-catching totals for running backs last year. There are five stats listed, and the Rams ranked last in all but one of them – targets, catches, yards and yards per catch. (They threw 4 TDs to running backs, which is a half touchdown more than the league average.)
With the kind of offense the Rams run, passing the ball all over the place, Williams has some PPR value, in my opinion. In that kind of format, if a running back catches 50 passes (even if he’s not running the ball much), he grades out as being worthy of a roster spot.
| RECEPTIONS BY RUNNING BACKS, 2021 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Tgt | No | Yds | Avg | TD |
| Las Vegas | 145 | 118 | 869 | 7.4 | 2 |
| Tampa Bay | 138 | 110 | 698 | 6.3 | 6 |
| Detroit | 136 | 110 | 760 | 6.9 | 3 |
| Atlanta | 146 | 110 | 896 | 8.1 | 6 |
| Carolina | 142 | 107 | 864 | 8.1 | 3 |
| Washington | 127 | 103 | 814 | 7.9 | 5 |
| LA Chargers | 131 | 101 | 879 | 8.7 | 8 |
| New England | 111 | 93 | 805 | 8.7 | 2 |
| Dallas | 118 | 92 | 653 | 7.1 | 3 |
| NY Giants | 116 | 91 | 567 | 6.2 | 4 |
| Kansas City | 112 | 90 | 824 | 9.2 | 5 |
| Minnesota | 115 | 90 | 603 | 6.7 | 1 |
| Green Bay | 106 | 89 | 712 | 8.0 | 8 |
| Arizona | 103 | 89 | 762 | 8.6 | 3 |
| Cincinnati | 98 | 85 | 665 | 7.8 | 6 |
| Cleveland | 104 | 84 | 682 | 8.1 | 4 |
| NY Jets | 130 | 84 | 775 | 9.2 | 2 |
| Pittsburgh | 109 | 82 | 514 | 6.3 | 3 |
| Indianapolis | 113 | 82 | 678 | 8.3 | 3 |
| San Francisco | 99 | 82 | 647 | 7.9 | 2 |
| Tennessee | 103 | 82 | 627 | 7.6 | 1 |
| New Orleans | 108 | 79 | 642 | 8.1 | 6 |
| Houston | 104 | 79 | 557 | 7.1 | 2 |
| Philadelphia | 106 | 74 | 513 | 6.9 | 1 |
| Denver | 93 | 73 | 551 | 7.5 | 5 |
| Chicago | 91 | 73 | 504 | 6.9 | 1 |
| Buffalo | 96 | 73 | 520 | 7.1 | 4 |
| Miami | 96 | 72 | 427 | 5.9 | 4 |
| Baltimore | 83 | 62 | 411 | 6.6 | 2 |
| Jacksonville | 93 | 59 | 417 | 7.1 | 1 |
| Seattle | 68 | 59 | 462 | 7.8 | 0 |
| LA Rams | 76 | 53 | 314 | 5.9 | 4 |
—Ian Allan