LOS ANGELES — Kyren Williams is never lacking in emotion and energy after a game. Even after a loss to the San Francisco 49ers earlier this season, he spoke eagerly about how much he wanted to beat the Rams’ divisional rival the next time they met.
After Sunday’s victory over the Seattle Seahawks, Williams was asked about his two longest runs of the season, a 30-yarder on his first attempt, then a 34-yarder on 4th-and-1 late in the first quarter to get the Rams to the goal line. And his voice dropped to a hush, almost in awe of the reinvigorating power of a chunk play.
“It felt so good,” Williams beamed. “It felt really good.”
From there, the words started to pour out of him, picking up tempo with each sentence, even making an admission that he knew would draw admonishment from running backs coach Ron Gould.
“I knew the second one, I kinda knew if we got into that third down, that fourth down, I knew what kind of front they would be in,” Williams said, each word cascading out now. “And I knew, I was watching film last night and I’d seen it from the Cardinals game, I knew if we called an outside zone on this play it was going to hit and Coach [Sean] McVay did exactly that. We called 19, it went to the left side and I knew I was going to press it and stretch it as much as I could and put my foot in the ground. It was already kind of a predetermined read, don’t tell Coach G that, but I kind of knew that once I got outside and I was going to press the line and everybody was going to fly over the top and I was going to put my foot in the ground.”
As Williams was happy to remind everyone, the 34-yarder was his longest carry since November 2023, which helps explain the exuberance.
The name of the game for Williams and the Rams’ rushing attack in general this season has been efficiency. The team has the second-best success rate in the NFL (47.8%) in rushing situations not because of explosives but because Williams, Blake Corum and the run blocks do enough to get 3-4 yards per carry and allow the offense to operate in favorable situations on second and third downs.
But it’s natural to want to break a big run, to force a missed tackle and to see open grass ahead of you. Which is why McVay has touched base with the running back room to make sure they understand how they are contributing.
“I don’t think you want guys to have to press. I think you want them to play one play at a time and try to make the most of it,” McVay said. “I think those things organically occur. Now you want to be able to create a heightened awareness when those ‘opps’ might present themselves, but Mike Shanahan used to say, ‘If you have to coach a runner how to run, you have the wrong runner.’ I think you give these guys a couple keys and then I think a lot of the instincts take over.”
And yet, this was something that Williams and the Rams’ running game worked on in practice ahead of the game against the Seahawks, sensing a potential opportunity and some fresh legs in Williams with Corum taking on more carries this season.
“We call it the scholarship player; there’s always going to be a guy that’s unblocked and can you make them miss?” Rams offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur said. “I thought he looked grounded, I thought he looked explosive, I thought he looked fresh. I think that’s a credit to Ron in terms of the rotation that he’s had with Blake. So there’s a cumulative effect to this thing.”
And the next time he gets the opportunity, Williams doesn’t want to be brought to the ground.
“I gotta work on my over speed a little bit, but next time I’m going to put that ball in that zone,” Williams said. “But it just feels to put my foot in the ground, get vertical, find those yards and then find that safety, made him miss. Make those plays, very excited for those.”