We Won’t Get Another Kyren Williams, But You Can Play the Key Elements of His Breakout With These 2 Dark Horse Options

Shawn Siegele
July 23, 2024

Shawn Siegele investigates Kyren Williams’ league-crushing campaign to find out what it can tell us about fantasy running back drafting. Can two dark horse candidates follow in his footsteps?

Every so often we get a lightning-strike player who completely turns the fantasy season on its head. In 2023 that was Kyren Williams.

Searching for players like Williams can present problems. We don’t expect to get a player like this very often, and in most circumstances we may want to avoid the types of characteristics these players possess.

But implicit in any quest to find the next Kyren Williams is the idea that perhaps he’s not such a rule-breaker at all. Perhaps his resume included positive indicators that were either obscured by other dynamics or not properly appreciated by the draft community. We want to always keep asking the question: Who are we missing because we’ve gotten so confident in our evaluation rubrics that we can’t see the trees for the forest?

More from Shawn’s Player Value Series

2 Dark Horse RBs Poised to Deliver Key Aspects of the Williams Breakout

Today’s exercise works through the circumstances that led to Williams’ inexpensive price, examines whether the evidence suggested more talent than perception indicated, and asks if we might be missing 2024 candidates in the same way.

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Shawn Siegele

Author of the original Zero RB article and 2013 NFFC Primetime Grand Champion. 11-time main event league winner. 2015, 2017, 2018 titles in MFL10 of Death.

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