Pretty much everyone on the planet knew that Les Snead and Sean McVay of the Los Angeles Rams were going to pull the trigger on a running back sometime during the 2022 NFL Draft. With the selection of Kyren Williams out of Notre Dame this year it has been six straight years that the Rams have drafted a runner. It all started back in 2017, McVay's first year as coach, when the team selected Sam Rogers (6th Round, FB, Virginia Tech). In 2018 it was John Kelly out of Tennessee followed by Darrell Henderson out of Memphis in 2019. In 2020 Cam Akers came aboard and then Jake Funk was a seventh round selection last year. That's a lot of draft capitol invested on players to carry the rock on the ground by one team.
You actually can't blame the Rams for wanting to hedge their bets at the running back position in 2022 by selecting Williams. Of the three rushers mentioned above that are still on the team Henderson is an injury prone change of pace back, the team really doesn't know what they actually have with Akers who excelled in the 2020 playoffs but failed to impress this year in limited action due to a major injury of his own and Funk has a skillset that limits him to a special teams role.
During the Rams run to the Super Bowl they had to trade for Sony Michel from the Patriots to carry the mail. He performed well, but his contract expired after the season and the expensive contract laden team simply had far too many pressing needs to resign him.
Enter Kyren Williams who can fill the void left by Michel. If you watch the tape on Williams what jumps out at you is that he is always moving forward on runs, a trademark of Sony Michel. Unlike, Michel however, Williams is quicker and possesses the ability to break runs for large gains. The knock on Williams coming into the draft was that he was quick but not fast and that he didn't perform well in drills. The tape tells a different story. Williams plays much faster then his forty time would indicate and his ability to dodge and break away from defenders illustrates that a good football player is a good football player no matter what the numbers say.
Just look at Cooper Kupp, the critics said much of the draft analysts said much of the same things about him and he was the MVP of the Super Bowl after leading the league in receptions, receiving yards and receiving touchdowns last year.
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