LOS ANGELES — As Kyren Williams started the 2024 season, the Los Angeles Rams star working again had a private aim in thoughts: End the season wholesome.
The 2022 fifth-round decide had performed in 22 video games in his first two seasons, spending time on injured reserve with an ankle harm throughout his rookie season and once more in 2023 when he missed 4 video games with an ankle sprain.
Williams additionally broke his hand within the Rams’ 2023 playoff loss to the Detroit Lions, requiring offseason surgical procedure, and missed a lot of the Rams’ offseason program after needing to wash up residual results from a earlier foot surgical procedure.
So going into the 2024 season, he began a brand new routine, taking good care of his “physique at a excessive clip,” he stated. Williams received two massages per week, was lifting thrice per week and began doing a little “supplemental” work after apply together with his ankles and toes to “have the ability to keep robust.”
“I began doing that [last] 12 months and I can really feel a distinction between how my physique responds week-in and week-out,” Williams stated after making it by means of the common season with out lacking time as a result of harm.
Williams solely missed the common season finale when head coach Sean McVay opted to relaxation his starters as a result of Los Angeles had clinched the NFC West.
And he did it regardless of accounting for 43% of the Rams touches this season, which led the NFL, in accordance with ESPN Analysis.
Williams additionally confirmed the Rams simply how key his presence was within the offense. This offseason, the Rams have the choice of signing him to a contract extension or permitting him to play out the ultimate season of his rookie deal.
Williams was a “regular, calming presence” for the Rams in accordance with offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur. With accidents to their high two receivers in Weeks 1 and a couple of, the Rams offense and quarterback Matthew Stafford little doubt leaned on their star working again in 2024. Williams ranked seventh within the NFL with 1,299 dashing yards in 16 video games.
“He is meant a lot,” McVay stated because the Rams ready for his or her first playoff recreation. “He has such an incredible vitality about himself. He enjoys the competitors. He likes to do difficult issues and the resilience that he exhibits is an actual reflection of his psychological and bodily toughness. That embodies loads of the issues that we wish to be about.
“I believe he is been at his finest in crucial moments that we have wanted him, and we would not be on this state of affairs with out him.”
WILLIAMS’ IMPORTANCE TO the Rams offense turned clear through the 2023 season. Whereas Stafford’s return from a thumb harm in Week 11 was a key spark for Los Angeles, so was Williams’ return from his ankle harm in Week 12.
Within the six video games Williams performed to finish the common season, he averaged greater than 114 dashing yards per recreation and scored eight touchdowns (six dashing, two receiving).
Williams is one among two gamers with 1,000 dashing yards and 10 dashing touchdowns in every of the final two seasons, in accordance with ESPN Analysis. The opposite is Baltimore Ravens working again Derrick Henry.
And whereas the Rams drafted working again Blake Corum within the third spherical in April, Williams nonetheless had a heavy workload. That was particularly obvious in Weeks 14 and 15, when Williams had 29 carries in every recreation — contests that happened 5 days aside.
In accordance with ESPN Analysis, Williams accounted for 70% of the Rams rushes this season, 9 proportion factors greater than the next-closest participant (Atlanta Falcons working again Bijan Robinson, 61%). It is the best proportion by any participant since Josh Jacobs (79% for the Raiders) and Derrick Henry (72% for the Titans) within the 2022 season.
“He is a warrior,” LaFleur stated. “He is simply as robust as they arrive mentally. He isn’t the most important dude, however he brings it with combat. There’s an vitality about that man that each one the fellows feed off. I believe we’re seeing his finest ball proper now and I do know he even looks like there’s much more on the market.”
WILLIAMS HAD JUST one 12 months remaining on his rookie deal as he enters his fourth season and is eligible for a contract extension.
This offseason, the Rams could have a call to make: prolong Williams or let him play subsequent season beneath contract and hand the reins over to Corum or another person in 2026. When the Rams drafted Corum in April, McVay stated the rookie had loads of traits on the sphere that reminded him of Williams. The Michigan product completed with 207 yards on 58 carries as a rookie, additionally contributing on kickoff returns.
Rams common supervisor Les Snead stated in his finish of season press convention {that a} potential extension for Williams might be on the docket in offseason conversations, however stated, “typically it’s harder to signal somebody who’s not of their closing 12 months.”
“That often may very well be a distinction in numbers, however loads of instances there is no actual deadline,” Snead stated. “It may drag on. He can be somebody that after three years you might start discussing… let’s name it renegotiating or beginning anew.
“I do suppose Kyren is somebody who’s a Ram and has a really impactful position for us.”
When requested whether or not drafting Corum performs into signing Williams to an extension — every time that is likely to be — Snead stated, “I believe we’d in all probability take the philosophy that you will want a couple of working again.”
“We’ll all the time attempt to maintain that room considerably wholesome when it comes to depth,” Snead stated. “Even with Kyren, there’s an opportunity that he has had two nice years however there’s a chance the place he wants a associate to take some load off of him. He has in all probability performed greater than any working again during the last two years. That is one thing to consider.”
And whereas Williams stated he hasn’t actually thought of whether or not the Rams will prolong him this offseason, he stated, “I do know I do love L.A. and I do know that I want to keep in a single spot for my profession.”
“I do not wish to be bounced round in every single place,” Williams stated. “However no, L.A. is unquestionably a spot that I see myself being at, calling house. However that is lower than me. I simply received to proceed to do what I do finest and that is placing within the work and going on the market on Sundays to be sure that that work is rewarded.”
