On the first day of free agency, the Cowboys signed Javonte Williams to a one-year, $3.0M contract. Coming out of North Carolina as a highly touted prospect, Williams’ career was off to a strong start until he suffered a catastrophic knee injury in his second season. While he was able to return the following season to play a significant role in the Broncos’ backfield, Williams has been unable to recapture the combination of physicality and burst he displayed in his rookie season.
With 2024 rushing leaders Rico Dowdle and Ezekiel Elliott no longer on the roster, Williams now joins a Cowboys backfield that is essentially a blank canvas. Dallas has been consistently projected to land some of the biggest running back names in this year’s draft, and it still feels like a matter of when — not if — we will see a headlining name added to the Cowboys RB depth chart. Even in the event that Dallas adds one of this year’s premier prospects in the draft, that does not mean Williams will not have a role in 2025. We only need to look back on Williams’ early career to understand how things can go sideways quickly at a position as physical as RB.
A Tale of What Could Have Been
Williams was a fantasy darling coming out of college after combining with Michael Carter Jr. to comprise a formidable backfield at North Carolina. Despite splitting time, Williams boasted a well-rounded profile while finishing his final college season at 20 years old.
JAVONTE WILLIAMS COLLEGE STATISTICS
After posting strong agility and explosion scores at the combine, Williams was drafted by Denver at the top of the second round in the 2021 draft.
Williams found himself in familiar territory during his rookie season, as he split time with Melvin Gordon III in the Broncos’ backfield. The workload was divided directly down the middle, with each RB averaging 15.1 opportunities per game in 2021. Williams put up impressive peripherals as a rookie, leading the NFL in broken tackles (35), coming in second in evasion rate (21.7%), and ranking eighth in boom percentage (8.4%). Gordon slightly edged Williams in PPR/GM, but the Broncos saw enough out of the rookie to hand him the reins to the backfield heading into 2022.
Four games into his tenure as lead back, Williams tore his ACL, LCL, and posterolateral corner in his right knee and was lost for the season. He was able to return at the start of the 2023 season to average 11.3 PPR points per game (PPR/GM), but then saw that number go down to 9.5 PPR/GM in 2024 while jockeying for position on a muddled Denver RB depth chart.
Through his struggles over the past two seasons, Williams has been able to earn matching 13% target shares. Unfortunately, the added benefit of his receiving work hasn’t helped with his efficiency. In each of the last two seasons, Williams has finished outside the top 150 RBs in total FPOE, and has never cracked the top 130 in any of his four seasons.
