The Los Angeles Rams had one of the best rushing attacks in the NFL last season thanks to the sudden emergence of Kyren Williams. After a quiet rookie year in 2022, Williams broke out as one of the top running backs in football, leading the league in rushing yards per game last year.
Yet, Sean McVay and Les Snead still opted to add a running back in the third round by selecting Blake Corum out of Michigan 83rd overall. It was a somewhat surprising pick by the Rams, but McVay loves his fit in the offense as a complementary piece behind Williams.
Doug Farrar of Touchdown Wire is a big fan of Corum’s fit with the Rams, too, ranking him among the best of any pick on offense in this year’s draft.
In the 2023 NCAA season, no back ran more out of Wham and Duo than Corum, who gained 276 yards, and 81 yards after contact in those two concepts, scoring three touchdowns on 38 carries. Notre Dame’s Audric Estime, who went to the Broncos in the fifth round, ranked second with 27 such carries. Troy’s Kimani Vidal, who you’ll see elsewhere in this article, ranked third with 24 such carries. So, Blake Corum to the Rams with the 83rd overall pick in the third round is one of the tighter scheme fits you’ll see in any draft.
Moreover, McVay isn’t bringing Corum in to replace Williams — he sees them as two backs who already know how to do what he wants his backs to do.
The Rams switched up their running game last season by going from a zone blocking scheme to more of a gap one. According to Farrar, the Rams called more gap power plays than any team in the NFL. It obviously worked exactly the way McVay hoped, leading to the Rams ranking 11th in rushing yards and eighth in rushing touchdowns – all with Williams missing five games.
But last season, McVay (and primary running back Kyren Williams) called and ran more gap power stuff than any other team in the NFL — on Wham and Duo alone, the Rams gained 510 yards and 284 yards after contact, and scored eight touchdowns, on 115 carries. The Patriots ranked second with 82 carries, so this was a Real Thing for McVay.
With Corum now in the mix, the Rams have two very similar running backs to utilize. How the workload will be split remains to be seen, but McVay no longer has to worry about overusing Williams or running different plays when he’s off the field.
Corum has been a workhorse throughout his football career and while he can certainly handle a big workload, neither he nor Williams will have to in L.A.