I saw a blurb go by last week where Eric Bieniemy (the offensive coordinator in Kansas City) was saying that he considers Damien Williams to be the team’s starting running back. Williams to me looks like a key player in drafts – possibly top-5 back, but there’s that worry about blowing an early pick on a player with a very limited track record.
Williams is a really good pass catcher. In the regular season, he caught all but one of the 24 passes thrown his way. While Williams has played a lot as a runner, he was a third-down back for most of his four years in Miami.
He held up fine last year. In his limited run with the first-unit offense, he actually ran more effectively than Kareem Hunt.
And Williams plays for a really good team. Kansas City is going to score a bunch of points, and it’s going to be around the end zone often. That offense had 34 running plays inside the 5 last year, 2nd-most in the league.
| TEAM RUSHING INSIDE 5 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Att | Yds | Avg | TD | 2Pt | EZ% |
| New Orleans | 43 | 52 | 1.21 | 17 | 3 | 46.5% |
| Kansas City | 34 | 50 | 1.47 | 14 | 1 | 44.1% |
| LA Rams | 33 | 47 | 1.42 | 15 | 1 | 48.5% |
| New England | 33 | 34 | 1.03 | 13 | 0 | 39.4% |
| Tennessee | 29 | 22 | .76 | 10 | 0 | 34.5% |
| Carolina | 26 | 37 | 1.42 | 12 | 0 | 46.2% |
| NY Giants | 26 | 27 | 1.04 | 8 | 1 | 34.6% |
| Pittsburgh | 24 | 24 | 1.00 | 13 | 0 | 54.2% |
| Baltimore | 24 | 20 | .83 | 9 | 1 | 41.7% |
| Cleveland | 23 | 27 | 1.17 | 11 | 2 | 56.5% |
| Indianapolis | 22 | 18 | .82 | 8 | 1 | 40.9% |
| San Francisco | 22 | 7 | .32 | 5 | 0 | 22.7% |
| Seattle | 21 | 19 | .90 | 8 | 0 | 38.1% |
| Houston | 20 | 27 | 1.35 | 8 | 0 | 40.0% |
| Tampa Bay | 20 | 21 | 1.05 | 9 | 0 | 45.0% |
| Oakland | 20 | 16 | .80 | 6 | 0 | 30.0% |
| Philadelphia | 19 | 22 | 1.16 | 6 | 4 | 52.6% |
| Dallas | 19 | 19 | 1.00 | 7 | 1 | 42.1% |
| Detroit | 18 | 17 | .94 | 8 | 0 | 44.4% |
| Chicago | 17 | 30 | 1.76 | 11 | 0 | 64.7% |
| Denver | 17 | 26 | 1.53 | 10 | 0 | 58.8% |
| Jacksonville | 17 | 22 | 1.29 | 6 | 0 | 35.3% |
| Cincinnati | 17 | 17 | 1.00 | 9 | 0 | 52.9% |
| Atlanta | 16 | -1 | -.06 | 4 | 0 | 25.0% |
| NY Jets | 15 | 29 | 1.93 | 7 | 0 | 46.7% |
| LA Chargers | 15 | 22 | 1.47 | 8 | 1 | 60.0% |
| Washington | 15 | 16 | 1.07 | 8 | 0 | 53.3% |
| Buffalo | 15 | 1 | .07 | 6 | 0 | 40.0% |
| Green Bay | 10 | 13 | 1.30 | 6 | 0 | 60.0% |
| Minnesota | 10 | 10 | 1.00 | 2 | 0 | 20.0% |
| Arizona | 9 | 9 | 1.00 | 6 | 0 | 66.7% |
| Miami | 3 | 4 | 1.33 | 1 | 0 | 33.3% |
To me, Williams looks like a gamble worth taking. There are those four really good backs (Barkley, Elliott, McCaffrey, Kamara), and then I think Williams is about as good as anyone else. I would be willing to select him in the second round (and would be excited to get him in the third).
—Ian Allan