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Sarah Barshop, ESPN Staff Writer
LOS ANGELES — When running back Kyren Williams learned the Los Angeles Rams drafted fellow running back Blake Corum in the third round of the 2024 NFL draft, he had to pause.
“At first I was worried about it, but then I had to think about it,” Williams said. “That competitive spirit in me had to get back and be like, ‘Man, they’re trying to help the team out.’ Because I missed some games last year and those games that I did miss, the run game, it wasn’t always there.”
Williams ranked third in the NFL in rushing last season despite playing in only 12 games, missing four with a sprained ankle in the middle of the season and a fifth for rest after the Rams had clinched a playoff spot.
During the four-game stretch when Williams was on injured reserve, the Rams were also without backup running back Ronnie Rivers, who injured his knee in the same game against the Cardinals and also required time on injured reserve.
Los Angeles added three running backs that week, signing Royce Freeman and Myles Gaskin to the active roster and Darrell Henderson Jr. to the practice squad. In those four games, the Rams averaged 94.25 rushing yards per game and combined for two rushing touchdowns. While the Rams were also without starting quarterback Matthew Stafford for six quarters of that four-game stretch, the Los Angeles offense struggled and the Rams won just one game.
While Williams is undoubtedly the Rams’ lead running back going into this season, drafting Corum gives them the ability to not only spell Williams at times after he averaged 22 touches a game last season, but also offers protection for Los Angeles if Williams again misses time.
The second-year running back has played in 22 games in his career, missing time his rookie season with that high ankle sprain. Williams also broke his hand in the Rams’ playoff loss to the Detroit Lions, requiring offseason surgery, and missed most of the Rams’ offseason program after needing to clean up something from a previous foot surgery.
“I’m excited for it because the type of caliber running back that [Corum] is, he’s going to be able to, if I’m not there, he’s going to be able to do it,” Williams said. “And so I’m excited for what he has in store and I’m excited that we’re both teammates because we’re both going to be able to complement each other.”
ON THE NIGHT the Rams drafted Corum, head coach Sean McVay said he thought there were “a lot of similarities” between the third-round pick and the running back he’d be learning from in Los Angeles.
Rams running backs coach Ron Gould agrees. Gould points to the way Williams can go one direction on a run and then level the play off and how he reads one gap at a time — better known as “slash running” — something Corum can do as well, along with the physical nature both running backs play with.
And the benefit to having two similar running backs, Gould said, is that McVay “can stay in the rhythm and how he calls the game.”
“You keep one guy fresh, is one thing,” Gould said. “Two, Coach can just call the game. And I think that’s something that’s really important.”
Allowing Williams to “stay fresh” this season is something the Rams are prioritizing, and it hasn’t been a secret to the running back. Gould said McVay “has done a great job of communicating” with Williams. “That’s one of the things that you stay ahead of. You’re open and honest with him in terms of the communication, then the guy can live with that.”
In Corum’s already short stint with the team, he has observed the same: “I think the culture that Coach McVay has instilled at the Rams’ organization is top tier. It’s all about the team … I think [Williams is] glad that they came and got me because we’re only going to better each other at the end of the day, and that’s what we want.”
“We want to continue to educate [players] on how to work hard and smart at the same time,” McVay said. “The importance of stressing yourself, but then getting the rest so that real growth can occur. [Williams] definitely understands that, and I think it’s part of our job to be able to kind of put plans in place to be able to allow them to be able to create a rhythm and routine, especially as he becomes a veteran in the latter part of his career.”
While Williams said his competitive nature means he always wants to have the ball in his hands, he understands that can’t be the reality.
“Obviously it’s not going to be good for me [if I take every carry],” Williams said. “I’ve got to be able to look out for myself because it’s the longevity of it. Because, yeah, I want to be great this season, but I want to be great for multiple seasons … so it’s just being able to be smarter and just having people like Blake [Corum] and Ronnie [Rivers] being able to support me in that run game.”
And that rest is not just in games, but in how Williams prepares for the season. When McVay was discussing Williams’ “foot issue” this spring, he twice mentioned how hard the running back works, saying Williams “works so hard sometimes it’s good to just be able to pull him back.”
And so instead of going out onto the field to work two or three times a day, Williams has started to “be smarter” about his body, implementing workouts like Pilates “so it’s just not always that grounding and pounding that I put on my body, and it’s more just sustaining it and keeping that stability within my body.”
Williams said at first, it was a tough adjustment to make: “my dad always told me I was hardheaded.” But more than that, Williams said he felt that hard work is what got him to where he is today.
“It’s just that work, consistent work, always, always going, doing something that the next person’s not doing,” Williams said.
Gould has been around enough players in his 33 years as a coach, that he has realized, “sometimes players like him, you have to save them from themselves.”
“I’ll say, ‘Hey, Kyren, now today, you’re not going to get every single rep,'” Gould said. “Now he’s one of those guys, because he’s super competitive, he’ll give me that look and he’ll say, ‘Oh, I got you coach.’ He said, ‘I got you.'”
“He’s mature because he knows now that ‘I need to work smarter. I just can’t go, go, go.’ And so over time, he’s done a good job of developing that and he’s done a sensational job of following through with it.”
WHAT THE RAMS have seen through two weeks of camp is what McVay was hoping for when he spoke glowingly of Corum on draft night.
“All 32 teams knew what kind of guy Corum was in terms of just how mature he was [and] the production he had at Michigan,” Rams offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur said. “Again, I don’t put predictions or anything on that, I just know that mentally he’ll be prepared to play. It won’t be too big for him.”
And part of the reason Corum has felt he’s been able to step right into camp is because of what he’s learned from his teammate. The rookie said he’s seen up close what he saw when watching Williams on film last year: “his elusiveness, his ability to break tackles and his vision is second to none.”
And while Corum said Williams is a “great, great running back,” the rookie said he was also struck by the way Williams leads by example but is “also vocal” when he needs to be.
“But he is not going to ask you to do anything that he wouldn’t do,” Corum said. “He comes to work each and every day with the same growth mindset. Coming off a Pro Bowl year, he still acts like he hasn’t achieved anything.”
When Gould is asked to describe Williams on the field, he tells a story about Williams’ first run during the Rams’ Week 1 victory in Seattle last season. The run went for six yards, but it’s not the result that Gould points to. Rather, it’s the way Williams got there.
“There was a little bitty hole” Gould said. “He went through that hole. But not only did he go through, you saw his passion because he kept his legs going. Guys are wrapped up around him. He’s spinning and turning, and he never says die.”
And while the Rams have spent this offseason trying to protect Williams from himself with the goal of having him healthy enough to lead them in every regular season game, they also know that once he’s on the field, there will be no stopping how hard he plays. And if Williams does have to miss time — due to injury or as the Rams try to protect their star running back — Corum won’t be far behind.