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Sarah Barshop
Los Angeles – When Kyren Williams began the 2024 season, the star corridor of the Los Angeles Rams had a personal goal in mind: ending the healthy season.
The selection of the fifth round of 2022 had played in 22 games in its first two seasons, spending time in the injured reserve with an ankle injury during its rookie season and again in 2023 when four games were lost with an ankle sprain .
Williams also broke his hand in the defeat of the Rams playoffs in the Rams playoff before the Detroit Lions, requiring low seasonal surgery, and the majority of the low season program of the Rams was lost after needing to clean the effects residuals from previous foot surgery.
Then, upon entering the 2024 season, a new regime began, taking care of his “body to a high clip,” he said. Williams received two massages per week, raised three times a week and began doing a “complementary” job after practice with his ankles and feet to “be able to stay strong.”
“I started doing that [last] Year and I can feel a difference between how my body responds week after week, “Williams said after spending the regular season without wasting time due to injuries.
Williams only lost the end of the regular season when the chief coach Sean McVay chose to rest his headlines because Los Angeles had assured the NFC West.
And he did it despite representing 43% of the touches of the Rams this season, which led the NFL, according to ESPN Research.
Williams also showed the RAMS how key presence was in the offensive. This low season, the Rams have the option to sign it for a contract extension or allow you to play the last season of your rookie agreement.
Williams was a “constant and relaxing presence” for Rams according to the offensive coordinator Mike Lafleur. With injuries in their two main receivers in weeks 1 and 2, the Rams offensive and the Matthew Stafford field marshal In 16 games.
“It is very understood,” McVay said while the Rams prepared for their first playoff game. “He has such great energy about himself. He enjoys competition. He loves to do challenging things and the resilience he shows is a real reflection of his mental and physical hardness. That plays many of the things we want to be about.
“I think he has been at his best at the most important moments that we have needed, and we would not be in this situation without him.”
The importance of Williams for The Rams offensive became evident during the 2023 season. While Stafford’s return of a thumb injury in week 11 was a key spark for angels, so was the return of Williams of his ankle injury In week 12.
In the six games that Williams played to finish the regular season, he averaged more than 114 yards per game and scored eight touchdowns (six per land, two receiving).
Williams is one of the two players with 1,000 yards per land and 10 touchdowns per land in each of the last two seasons, according to ESPN Research. The other is Baltimore Ravens corridor, Derrick Henry.
And while the RAMS wrote Blake Corum corridor in the third round in April, Williams still had a great workload. That was especially evident in weeks 14 and 15, when Williams had 29 carry in each game, contests that took place five days apart.
According to ESPN Research, Williams accounted for 70% of the Rams run this season, 9 percentage points more than the next closed player (the Atlanta Falcons Bijan Robinson’s corridor, 61%). It is the highest percentage of any player from Josh Jacobs (79% for Raiders) and Derrick Henry (72% for Titans) in the 2022 season.
“It’s a warrior,” said Lafleur. “He is as hard as they come mentally. It is not the biggest guy, but he brings it with a fight. There is an energy in that kind that all boys feed. I think we are seeing their best ball at this time and I know. Even He feels even more out there. “
Williams only had A remaining year in his rookie agreement when he enters his fourth season and is eligible for a contract extension.
This low season, the RAMS will have to make a decision: extend to Williams or let him play next season under contract and deliver the reins to Corum or someone else in 2026. When the RAMS wrote to Corum in April, McVay said the rookie had Much features in the field that reminded Williams. Michigan’s product ended with 207 yards in 58 haules as a rookie, and also contributed starting returns.
The general manager of the RAMS, Les Snead, said at his season -end press conference that a possible extension for Williams will be in the file in the low season conversations, but said: “Sometimes it is more difficult to sign someone than It is not in its last year. “
“That could generally be a difference in numbers, but many times there is no real deadline,” said Snead. “You can advance. It would be someone who could start discussing after three years … let’s call it renegotiating or starting again.
“I think Kyren is someone who is a RAM and has a very shocking role for us.”
When asked if Corum’s writing plays in signing Williams to an extension, provided that it could be, Snead said: “I think we would probably take the philosophy that it will need more than one corridor.”
“We will always try to maintain that room something healthy in terms of depth,” said Snead. “Even with Kyren, there is the possibility that I had two big years, but there is the possibility that a partner needs to take some charge. He has probably played more than any runner in the last two years. That is something. Think of “
And although Williams said that he has not really thought about whether the Rams will extend it this low season, he said: “I know that I love Los Angeles and I would like to stay in a place for my career.”
“I don’t want you to bounced everywhere,” Williams said. “But no, it is definitely a place where I see myself, calling home. But that does not depend on me. I just have to continue doing what I do better and that is to work and leave on Sundays make sure that that work is rewarded. “
