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Denver Broncos great Terrell Davis is optimistic about his fellow running back Javonte Williams.
The fourth-year running back is coming off his best game of the season after rushing for 77 yards on 16 carries (4.8 yards per carry) in the Broncos' win over the New York Jets in Week 4. Williams has had difficulty recapturing the form that made him an aggressive runner prior to his ACL and LCL tears during the 2022 season. Davis dealt with his own serious injury during the 1999 season after he won the MVP in 1998 following a 2,008-yard campaign. While Davis would return during the 2000 and 2001 seasons — he appeared in 13 games — he wasn't the same running back that he was when he led the Broncos to back-to-back Super Bowl wins.
Davis compares Williams' return from his injury as similar to what he had to deal with when he returned during the 2000 season from his own ACL and MCL tear.
“He's at where I was,” Davis says in a one-on-one interview with ClutchPoints. “He is where I was, where I look good, but I was never who I was initially. And I used to have this struggle with me knee, where my brain — I can think about doing something — but I just had a slight delay in power, how it would foster, it was not clear on how I can run.”
Davis says that Williams' performance against the Jets gives him hope that the 24-year-old running back is recapturing the form that he displayed prior to his injury.
“I was running based on thinking,” Davis says of his own experience returning from injury. “And then with doing that, it's hard to be effective. The last game (against the Jets), I saw glimpses of Javonte. I saw the old guy come back, I saw his legs look more lively. He was running through tackles.
It's in there. I think he was still getting better from that knee injury. Years later, you look back and say, ‘I was healthy two years ago. But then you're like, no, I wasn't — now I'm really healthy.' I think that's where he's going.”
Prior to his injury, Williams had averaged 4.4 yards per carry. Since his injury, the 5-foot-10, 220-pound running back has averaged just 3.5 yards per carry. His outing against the Jets marked his most rushing yards in 12 games and his highest yards per carry in 14 games.
Meanwhile, the Broncos are off to a 2-2 start. The team has big divisional matchups with the Las Vegas Raiders and Los Angeles Chargers in the coming weeks — both winnable games. However, Denver has had difficult defeating the Raiders in recent years, losing eight consecutive games against their hated rivals.
While the Broncos are in fair shape entering Week 5 — Davis expected them to be 1-3 — he's hesitant to call this a playoff team considering their struggles on offense. The offensive unit ranks 28th in the league while the defensive unit ranks third.
“I will say this — if their offense was putting up consistently 20-to-24 points per game, I would say yes (that they're a playoff team).,” says Davis. “Where I'm concerned is, is that they don't score points. They have one of the top defenses. If their defense plays the way they've been playing and their offense puts up points in the 20's, then I would say yeah, absolutely.”
Davis — who is speaking on behalf of his partnership with Wells Fargo — is teaming up with the bank regarding financial education for student athletes. The University of Georgia alum has taken current Georgia Bulldogs running back Rod Robinson II under his wing as a mentor and will have a content series regarding financial education during the NIL era that is currently being released on social channels.
“It's really helping them maximize their own retention in their college years, managing their finances and really avoiding the big bills,” says Davis.
“I've been mentoring Rod for a number of years. We have a content series that has already been released on social channels. This is about trying to navigate and empowerment conversations about finances.”
