Film Room: How Broncos Played to Javonte Williams' Strengths vs. Cowboys
Denver Broncos rookie running back Javonte Williams has had quite a start to his NFL career. While being in a timeshare with veteran Melvin Gordon, Williams is on pace to rush for over 800 yards at the halfway point of the year.
Despite the success that he is enjoying on the ground, there is still some room to improve for the young back. Football Outsiders currently has Williams with just a 42% success rate on his rushes. For a player averaging 4.9 yards per carry on the year, this essentially means that he is getting stuffed a lot at the line while mixing in a few huge chunk plays.
For Williams to fully embrace the role of a bell-cow back, he has to cut down on the number of runs being stuffed for minimal gain. This past Sunday was a major step in a positive direction. He was able to get downhill in a hurry and create yardage when it wasn't there.
In today's film room, I'm diving into a few of these runs to show how the Broncos were able to get Williams into favorable positions to do what he does best.
Inside Zone
Offensive coordinator Pat Shurmer loves to utilize inside zone runs in his scheme. This has been a bit of an issue for Williams in his rookie year, as he is more of a power-run type of running back.
Luckily, the Broncos' offensive line came to play in a big way in this game. When your running back doesn't have elite vision, the offensive line has to get vertical displacement to make these inside runs work. The line executed its assignments perfectly on this one, and the result was Williams being able to crash downhill like he would on a power run.
The key block to watch on this one is Dalton Risner at left guard. He gets a good push on the shade defensive tackle before climbing to the linebacker. This hole created by Risner allows Williams to plant his foot, get downhill, and carry a weak tackle attempt for a few extra yards.
Outside Zone
When the Broncos have struggled on outside zone runs, it typically would stem from Williams not being able to find the cutback on a stretch play. When Williams has to think about his outlet, rather than just planting his foot and getting upfield, there have been issues (as there are with most rookie running backs).
This run is a nice little design by Shurmer to get Williams in space. There isn't anything special about the play, but the run to the weak side of the offense prevents Dallas from having a slot corner or safety off the edge.
Basically, this play is asking the Broncos center, left guard, and left tackle to win their assignments. Calvin Anderson locks up the left side and Lloyd Cushenberry does a great job of climbing to the second level. All Williams has to do is hit that corner and turn upfield.
Power Runs Behind Meinerz
This was the most exciting development of the game. Again, Shurmer loves to utilize zone runs in his offense. On Sunday, though, he wasn't afraid to mix in a few power runs with pulling linemen out in front.
The really intriguing part about these runs was that rookie right guard Quinn Meinerz (filling in for the injured Graham Glasgow) was leading the way on these plays. These were far and away the most efficient runs in the game for the Broncos.
The first run is the biggest chunk run of the day, as Meinerz is able to get through the hole and clear a path for Williams. Williams then does what he does best and keeps his legs driving through the pile. With a little help from Meinerz, Williams is able to break through and gain some extra yardage on the play.
The Broncos went into Dallas and essentially steamrolled a surging Cowboys team. The best part about the victory is they did it behind the stellar play of first-year players.
Meinerz and Williams were clear standouts in this game. This pin-pull play is run to perfection, as Meinerz clears out the filling corner and Williams is able to turn upfield for another chunk play.
Bottom Line
I want to reiterate that I am in no way trying to slight Williams in this piece. He is an excellent rookie running back that is doing a lot of good things for this offense.
That being said, Williams is still growing as a first-year player in the league. He needs time to develop the proper vision and patience to be a top running back.
In the meantime, Shurmur can help his young player by drawing up plays like the ones above. Williams is at his best when he can plant his foot and get upfield, and we saw what can happen when he can do that for an entire game.
Overall, this was just a great game for the Broncos from top to bottom. If Shurmur continues to get Williams in favorable positions like this (and the offensive line continues to hold up), the rookie running back should have no problem breaking 1,000 yards in his freshman campaign.
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