After not taking Justin Fields in the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft, the Denver Broncos selected running back Javonte Williams in the second.
You know, because they just let Phillip Lindsay — a proven back — walk and already have Melvin Gordon, so doing that all over with your second pick makes all the sense in the world!
The good news? Javonte Williams is a legitimately good back who should do marvelous in the National Football League. With his debut for the Broncos still some months away, we're going to make some early predictions about his rookie season for the orange and blue.
Javonte Williams (Eventually) Takes Melvin Gordon's Job
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y14wIpNmG14
Despite only averaging four yards per carry twice in his career, people remain high on Gordon. To be fair to him, he is coming off a season in which he averaged 4.6 yards per carry (second best of his career), ran for nine touchdowns, and managed to appear in 15 games.
And yet, given his price tag, he feels a bit expensive and not truly worth further investment. The Broncos should — and likely will — get whatever is left out of Gordon before his 28-year-old body (with only 1,274 rushing attempts) fails him. For his sake, let's hope it never does. Like, literally. Do not root for people's bodies to fail them.
Anyway, Denver didn't select Javonte Williams in the second round to be just some guy. After taking a cornerback in the first round, it appears the Broncos are going to give either/both Drew Lock and Teddy Bridgewater every chance to succeed by surrounding them with a ton of weapons.
Already with an insane amount of talent surrounding them at the tight end and wide receiver spots, now the Broncos added a different type of back into the fold.
A powerful runner with more shimmy than folk realize, though he's without breakaway speed, Williams will likely end up being the guy who gets more carries as the season grows longer in the tooth.
This is, obviously, a bit of a bold prediction, as Gordon is the higher paid player with far more experience, but if Denver selected Williams to rarely use him… ugh… that would be less than ideal. Nevertheless, expect a close to even split in carries when the season begins, but for Javonte Williams to get slightly more per game halfway through.
He Becomes A Bit Of A Highlight Reel
This prediction is far less hyperbolic. I am sorry, reader. I know you're here for my strong takes.
As mentioned earlier, Williams isn't a burner. He's a 5-foot-10, 220-LB wrecking ball of destruction, glory and awesomeness. In turn, he's going to truck some poor defenders right out of the gate.
Even better, he had a relatively light workload in college. While many scouts' biggest concern for Williams is the wear and tear his style of play will take on him as his NFL career goes on, he's coming to the league pretty fresh.
A fresh, powerful running back who is known to splatter foes with the fury of 1,000 Nic Cage movies? Yeah. He's going to end up creating some fun highlight reel quality plays.
Counting Stats Will Look Great
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQ9S22mQBdA
Again, he's going to split some time with Gordon, especially early on. That being said, I do have some bold takes for what his numbers will look like by the time the season is over.
Assuming he gets 14.3 rush attempts per game (what Gordon got last season), it feels safe to assume he'll finish his rookie campaign with over 900 yards, placing his yard per cary average well over 4.0 but not exceeding 4.5.
Where things will get a bit more interesting is which back gets touches when the Broncos get closer to the goal line. A natural instinct would be to assume the bigger, more powerful back (here being Javonte Williams) getting the majority of the touches, but coaches certainly fear turnovers in huge spots from young guys in those situations.
As I've repeated numerous times in this post, expect Gordon to get the majority of those to start the season. Nevertheless, who knows how often Denver even ends up in the redzone given all the question marks at the QB spot. If it ends up being similar to last season, though, Williams can finish with six to eight rushing touchdowns.
So, basically: Williams will rush for 900 yards on 4.3(ish) yards per carry while running it in for a score seven times. If he misses no games or time due to injury, that 4.3 number puts him way closer to 1,000, but he'll almost for certain — like every RB in the history of the world — miss some snaps due to bumps and bruises.
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