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The Rams have their guy in Kyren Williams. But is it time to lighten his load?
One of the bigger question marks for the Los Angeles Rams this offseason has been how they will manage running back Kyren Williams in 2024. In a league that has embraced the running back by committee formula, the Rams have remained a one-back team. That has been despite drafting running backs such as Zach Evans, Blake Corum, and having an experienced player in Ronnie Rivers.
In one sense, it’s a good thing that the Rams have a running back that they can trust to carry the load. At the same time, it is worth wondering whether or not having another player that can take some of those responsibilities would help Williams. The Rams running back has struggled with ball security and explosiveness. If the Rams are able to keep him fresh throughout the season, would that benefit Williams?
Over the past two seasons, it’s hard to find a running back that has played more than Williams. Last season, he led all running backs in the NFL in snap percentage at 86.4 percent. Williams was the only running back above 80 percent. He also tied for the highest carry percentage, taking 73.7 percent of the Rams rushing attempts. Williams was tied with Jonathan Taylor.
It’s not just in the running game where Williams is used frequently. Williams also ran a route on 58.8 percent of Rams passing attempts and ran the fourth most total routes. Only Christian McCaffrey ran routes at a higher percentage. While players like Breece Hall, Bijan Robinson, and De’Von Achane ran more total routes, they also only took around 60 percent of their teams’ rushing attempts. In Achane’s case, he took 45.3 percent of the Miami Dolphins’ carries.
This was also the case for Williams in 2023 as he took 83.3 percent of the team’s snaps at running back, trailing only McCaffrey. He also took 68.5 percent of the team’s rushing attempts. That was second behind Josh Jacobs. In the passing game, Williams ran a route on 63.4 percent of the team’s dropbacks which ranked third. It’s also worth noting that Williams missed games with injury in 2023.
It’s not hard to argue that Williams has been the most-used running back in the NFL over the past two seasons. With Blake Corum heading into year two and the team drafting Jarquez Hunter in the fourth round, the hope would be that both see some playing time this season to relieve Williams.
The caveat here is that Sean McVay has never run a two running back offense.with the Rams. There was the playoff game against the Dallas Cowboys in 2018 in which Todd Gurley and CJ Anderson each rushed for over 100 yards. However, that has much more been the exception than the norm.
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