-
Sarah Barshop
LOS ANGELES — When the Rams traded as much as draft Auburn working again Jarquez Hunter within the fourth spherical final month, he joined a crowded backfield, with 4 different working backs who noticed enjoying time for the workforce final season.
The group consists of Kyren Williams, a fifth-round decide in 2022 who has develop into the Rams’ clear starter on the place however is getting into the ultimate season of his rookie deal.
Rams coach Sean McVay and common supervisor Les Snead met with Williams’ agent on the NFL league conferences in early April a couple of potential extension. That morning, McVay mentioned Williams “is aware of how essential he’s to us.”
“So far as simply bridging that hole, we’ll see how far we have now to go for that, however he’s an important a part of what we need to be shifting ahead,” McVay mentioned.
However including Hunter — a yr after drafting Blake Corum within the third spherical — doesn’t suggest the Rams will not try and re-sign Williams. Since 2017 — McVay’s second draft with the workforce — the Rams have taken a working again in each draft. Their eight-year streak is the longest lively streak within the NFL and the longest streak by any workforce since Washington from 2011-20, in line with ESPN Analysis. The Rams even have Ronnie Rivers and Cody Schrader on their roster, each undrafted free brokers.
“We might positively prefer to engineer a long-term partnership with Kyren,” Snead mentioned on the NFL league conferences.
Final season, Williams stayed wholesome for your complete season for the primary time in his three-year profession, a aim he set getting into the 2024 marketing campaign given his earlier NFL damage historical past. In 16 regular-season video games — the Rams rested him within the regular-season finale after clinching the NFC West — Williams ran for a career-high 1,299 yards and 14 touchdowns on 316 carries. He additionally added 34 catches for 182 yards and two touchdowns.
And maybe most impressively, Williams accounted for 43% of the Rams’ touches through the 2024 season, which led the NFL, in line with ESPN Analysis.
However whereas Williams was the Rams’ clear RB1 in 2024 and led a workforce that ranked tenth in dashing DVOA, he averaged 1.74 yards per try after first contact final season. In response to ESPN Analysis, that ranked thirty second within the NFL amongst gamers with no less than 100 carries. The NFL common amongst gamers with no less than 100 carries was 1.89.
Corum, who had simply 58 carries, averaged 1.4 yards per rush after first contact.
Including Hunter, the Rams hope, will assist deliver that explosiveness to the sphere. Final season, Hunter averaged 4.03 yards per rush after contact, which was one of the best within the SEC amongst gamers with no less than 100 rushes, in line with ESPN Analysis.
“He can hit dwelling runs for you too,” McVay mentioned after the draft. “Once you give him a vertical seam, he is received the flexibility to run away from you. A few of the metrics that we have now on him are actually spectacular.”
When requested how he’d describe his working type, Hunter mentioned, “I really feel like I am a really north-to-south runner, a downhill runner. I can catch the ball out of the backfield. I can go shield and I can run.”
Hunter, who mentioned he spoke to the Rams three or 4 instances through the predraft course of, mentioned he sees some similarities between his and Williams’ working kinds, however mentioned, “I really feel like I am extra of a downhill runner.”
“Once you put the movie on [of Hunter], he lights up,” McVay mentioned.
“He is received the flexibility to undergo you or to have the ability to run away from you,” McVay mentioned. ” … Once you speak to a variety of coaches in that league that you’ve got great respect for, the way in which that they spoke about Jarquez and going towards him and what he meant to that soccer workforce and the competitiveness that he actually displayed.
“Les [Snead] and his group had an actual appreciation for him after which as soon as the coaches laid eyes on him, there was a collective buy-in.”
