LOS ANGELES — When the Rams traded as much as draft Auburn operating again Jarquez Hunter within the fourth spherical final month, he joined a crowded backfield, with 4 different operating backs who noticed enjoying time for the crew final season.
The group contains Kyren Williams, a fifth-round choose in 2022 who has turn out to be the Rams’ clear starter on the place however is coming 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 few doable extension. That morning, McVay mentioned Williams “is aware of how necessary 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 a vital a part of what we wish 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 crew — the Rams have taken a operating again in each draft. Their eight-year streak is the longest lively streak within the NFL and the longest streak by any crew 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 undoubtedly wish 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 coming into the 2024 marketing campaign given his earlier NFL harm 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 throughout 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 crew that ranked tenth in speeding DVOA, he averaged 1.74 yards per try after first contact final season. In keeping with ESPN Analysis, that ranked thirty second within the NFL amongst gamers with at the least 100 carries. The NFL common amongst gamers with at the least 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 carry that explosiveness to the sphere. Final season, Hunter averaged 4.03 yards per rush after contact, which was the most effective within the SEC amongst gamers with at the least 100 rushes, in line with ESPN Analysis.
“He can hit residence runs for you too,” McVay mentioned after the draft. “If you give him a vertical seam, he is received the power 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 operating model, 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 occasions throughout the predraft course of, mentioned he sees some similarities between his and Williams’ operating kinds, however mentioned, “I really feel like I am extra of a downhill runner.”
“If you put the movie on [of Hunter], he lights up,” McVay mentioned.
“He is received the power to undergo you or to have the ability to run away from you,” McVay mentioned. ” … If you speak to a whole lot of coaches in that league that you’ve super respect for, the best way that they spoke about Jarquez and going towards him and what he meant to that soccer crew 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.”
