I see Kyren Williams is hoping to be more involved in the passing game. I’ll believe it when I see it. He catches the ball just fine, but that’s not a big part of the Rams’ offense.
Williams, as quoted in a USA Today article, says he’s excited about the Rams using a third-round pick on another running back. He says his hope is that move allows him to contribute more as a pass catcher.
“I’m super excited that we went to go draft Blake Corum, somebody who can run the ball very well,” Williams said. “Hopefully it allows me to get to the slot or allows me to just run routes out of the backfield so that I’m able to really showcase my skills that I have for this game.”
Should the Rams decide to use Williams more as a third-down type weapon, I imagine he’ll come through just fine. He caught 42 passes his final season at Notre Dame, and he averaged 2.9 catches in his 11 starts last year. He can do it.
But I don’t think that’s what Sean McVay wants to do. The way he pushes the chess pieces around offensively, running backs don’t tend to be used much in the passing game. In the last five years, only 14 teams have completed fewer than 55 passes to running backs in a season. The Rams have finished under that threshold all five years.
It's not that the Rams hasn’t had running backs who can catch the ball, it’s just not what they’ve wanted to do offensively.
| FEWER THAN 60 CATCHES BY RUNNING BACKS (last 5 yrs) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Team | No | Yds | Avg | TD |
| 2019 | LA Rams | 37 | 260 | 7.0 | 2 |
| 2020 | Tennessee | 38 | 240 | 6.3 | 2 |
| 2022 | Chicago | 46 | 414 | 9.0 | 2 |
| 2020 | Baltimore | 47 | 364 | 7.7 | 1 |
| 2019 | Tennessee | 47 | 424 | 9.0 | 3 |
| 2023 | LA Rams | 48 | 344 | 7.2 | 3 |
| 2022 | Philadelphia | 48 | 262 | 5.5 | 0 |
| 2022 | LA Rams | 49 | 361 | 7.4 | 0 |
| 2022 | Baltimore | 49 | 267 | 5.4 | 2 |
| 2019 | Baltimore | 49 | 409 | 8.3 | 6 |
| 2020 | LA Rams | 50 | 444 | 8.9 | 2 |
| 2020 | Denver | 52 | 272 | 5.2 | 1 |
| 2022 | Atlanta | 53 | 333 | 6.3 | 1 |
| 2021 | LA Rams | 53 | 314 | 5.9 | 4 |
| 2020 | Buffalo | 54 | 406 | 7.5 | 2 |
| 2019 | Houston | 55 | 461 | 8.4 | 3 |
| 2020 | NY Giants | 58 | 398 | 6.9 | 2 |
| 2021 | Jacksonville | 59 | 417 | 7.1 | 1 |
| 2021 | Seattle | 59 | 462 | 7.8 | 0 |
Looking at the cumulative totals of the last five years, I see the Rams in dead last. They’re 31 catches behind the Ravens, and at least 80 catches behind every other team. Eight teams have completed at least 200 more passes to running backs.
So put me down as a skeptic that Williams will be much more involved in the passing game than he was last year. I would expect about 3 catches per game.
| PASS CATCHES BY RUNNING BACKS (last 5 years) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | No | Yds | Avg | TD |
| LA Chargers | 585 | 4,552 | 7.8 | 30 |
| New Orleans | 510 | 3,781 | 7.4 | 17 |
| New England | 495 | 3,888 | 7.9 | 17 |
| Tampa Bay | 488 | 3,426 | 7.0 | 17 |
| Washington | 476 | 3,733 | 7.8 | 17 |
| Carolina | 462 | 3,574 | 7.7 | 12 |
| Denver | 446 | 3,021 | 6.8 | 14 |
| Green Bay | 437 | 3,405 | 7.8 | 25 |
| NY Jets | 434 | 3,245 | 7.5 | 10 |
| Kansas City | 433 | 3,539 | 8.2 | 31 |
| San Francisco | 429 | 3,772 | 8.8 | 32 |
| Miami | 427 | 3,063 | 7.2 | 18 |
| Indianapolis | 427 | 3,122 | 7.3 | 12 |
| Detroit | 424 | 3,107 | 7.3 | 13 |
| Atlanta | 417 | 3,085 | 7.4 | 18 |
| Cincinnati | 413 | 3,125 | 7.6 | 25 |
| Pittsburgh | 405 | 2,563 | 6.3 | 11 |
| Minnesota | 398 | 3,048 | 7.7 | 14 |
| Arizona | 396 | 2,922 | 7.4 | 17 |
| Dallas | 385 | 2,750 | 7.1 | 14 |
| Chicago | 375 | 2,604 | 6.9 | 12 |
| Jacksonville | 375 | 2,807 | 7.5 | 10 |
| NY Giants | 372 | 2,468 | 6.6 | 13 |
| Cleveland | 370 | 2,826 | 7.6 | 17 |
| Houston | 364 | 2,547 | 7.0 | 13 |
| Philadelphia | 346 | 2,471 | 7.1 | 7 |
| Seattle | 344 | 2,539 | 7.4 | 12 |
| Buffalo | 330 | 2,571 | 7.8 | 16 |
| Tennessee | 317 | 2,570 | 8.1 | 11 |
| Baltimore | 268 | 2,074 | 7.7 | 13 |
| LA Rams | 237 | 1,723 | 7.3 | 11 |
—Ian Allan