Who is the next Kyren Williams?

The Rams’ Kyren Williams is now a folk hero, can any running back duplicate his breakout suceess?

Kyren Williams was literally playing in football games last season before anyone outside of the organization (and possibly inside) had any idea what was in store for his 2023 campaign. Not only did the Rams go into the season with Cam Akers as the starting running back, there wasn’t any buzz about Williams being “too good to contain” when L.A. decided to trade Akers to the Vikings after Week 1 for a bag of footballs.

In his first start, Williams gained 100 yards and scored two touchdowns. In his third start, he rushed for 103 yard sand scored two touchdowns. In his fifth start, he rushed for 158 yards and scored his seventh touchdown of the season. By the end of the year, with only 12 games under his belt, Williams had 1,144 rushing yards, 206 receiving yards, and 15 touchdowns.

As a fifth round pick out of Notre Dame in 2022 who had done little as a rookie, the success of Kyren Williams came out of nowhere for just about everyone other than Kyren Williams.

ESPN’s Bill Barnwell posed an interesting question on Sunday: Who is 2024’s “Kyren Williams”? And could he possibly end up on the Rams?

Second-year running backs

Zach Evans, Rams

If we’re being very specific with our answers, we’re looking for second-year running backs who were day three picks. Perfectly enough, one of the examples is a guy backing up Williams: Zach Evans, a sixth round pick in 2023.

It’s also perfect that Evans didn’t show anything as a rookie. He played in 10 games and had 19 rushing yards. But Evans was once expected to be as talented as any back in college football, averaging almost 7 yards per carry in his career with TCU and Ole Miss.

For anyone who thinks that Evans “can’t be the next Kyren” because he didn’t show anything as a rookie, I think you’re missing the point of the question: Kyren wasn’t expected to be Kyren. It wasn’t as though when the Rams picked Kyren a bunch of fans were jumping up and down that he was a steal, the selection was billed more as “this guy can help eat some carries and blocks for us, but he’s not a star”. Then he led the NFL in yards per game last season.

It was unexpected. If anything, Evans is the type who was billed to be a day three steal if he could stay healthy and buy into Sean McVay with 100% effort and commitment and not getting into any issues that would prevent him from playing on Sundays.

Roschon Johnson, Bears

Chris Rodriguez, Commanders

Deuce Vaughn, Cowboys

Chase Brown, Bengals

Israel Abinakanda, Jets

Five other day three picks in 2023 are listed above and none of them rushed for at least 400 yards. Johnson had the most productive rookie season, gaining over 550 total yards with the Bears last year. However, Chicago signed D’Andre Swift in free agency and still have Khalil Herbert.

Rodriguez has to compete with Austin Ekeler and Brian Johnson in Washington.

Vaughn is nothing like your typical running back, he’s way undersized but really exciting to watch if he gets going with the ball in his hands. He probably can’t be the next Kyren, but he could be the next Darren Sproles.

Abinakanda is interesting because he’s only one Breece Hall injury from starting with the Jets. He might be the type of sneaky answer we’re looking for right now.

Brown is good, but does have to compete with Zack Moss, Trayveon Williams, and Chris Evans in Cincinnati.

Eric Gray, Giants

Evan Hull, Colts

Tank Bigsby, Jaguars

I’m cheating with Tank Bigsby because he was a third round pick. That’s pretty high for a running back. Still, he didn’t have the rookie impact a lot expected he would and if anything happens to Travis Etienne, he might be starting for Jacksonville.

Other RBs

Zamir White, Raiders

Jaleel McLaughlin, Broncos

Ty Chandler, Vikings

Keaton Mitchell, Ravens

Jordan Mason, 49ers

Emari Demercado, Cardinals

Zamir White is slated to start or compete against Alexander Mattison for the starting job in Las Vegas. White was a fourth round pick two years ago and rushed for 451 yards last season behind Josh Jacobs. With Jacobs in Green Bay, it could be White’s season.

With Mattison in Las Vegas, Chandler moves up in Minnesota, but he will have to backup Aaron Jones until further notice.

Mason is in a great situation with the 49ers. The former undrafted free agent had 206 yards last season and if anything happens to Christian McCaffrey both he and Elijah Mitchell are slated to be in line for a really enviable spot with San Francisco’s offense. I would expect the 49ers to make a notable addition to this position group.

Demarcado was undrafted last year, he could find himself getting carries again in the near future.

Keaton Mitchell is one of the fastest running backs in the NFL but went undrafted in 2023. He averaged 8.4 yards per carry on 47 attempts prior to getting injured. He might become a true superstar if he stays healthy in the Ravens offense, but Baltimore signed Derrick Henry to become the new number one.

Finally, McLaughlin is stuck behind Javonte Williams and Samaje Perine, but it wouldn’t be surprising if like Kyren Williams, he was starting early in the season. Javonte has an extensive injury history and McLaughlin is more talented than Perine.

Isaiah Spiller, Chargers

Jerome Ford, Browns

Hassan Haskins, Titans

Gary Brightwell, Giants

Any of these slightly more veteran options could be the breakout.

Spiller gets Jim Harbaugh as a coach next year. L.A. will run the ball and Gus Edwards has never had 200 carries in a season. Spiller might get extensive work. Haskins might be a talented player in a good situation if Tennessee’s starter, Tony Pollard, misses any time. It’s hard to know what to make of Tyjae Spears and the Titans RBs until we see the team with a new coach and no Derrick Henry.

Who would be your choice as the next Kyren Williams? If it’s Zach Evans, then what happened to Kyren Williams? If Williams misses any games, as he has in each of his first two seasons, then at least Evans or Ronnie Rivers will have a great interior offensive line to run behind.