NFL's View of Kyren Williams Shows Why Blake Corum Deserves a Bigger Role in the Rams' Offense

Over the past three years, there arguably hasn’t been a more consistent player at the running back position than Kyren Williams of the Los Angeles Rams. Since 2023, Williams ranks third in the NFL in rushing touchdowns and sixth in rushing yards with 3,695. Last season, he joined Steven Jackson, Marshall Faulk, and Eric Dickerson as the only Rams’ running backs to rush for over 1,000 yards in three consecutive years.

There’s no doubt that Williams is leaving a legacy as one of the Rams’ great running backs. The 2025 season was also his third consecutive appearance on the NFL's Top 100 Players list.

However, when it comes to Williams, the conversation around him is much more complicated. That’s not to say he isn’t a good player, but he undoubtedly benefits from the system he’s in and the situation around him.

The NFL's Evaluation of Williams Makes Sense

Over the past week, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler has polled NFL coaches and executives around the league to rank players at each position. Despite ranking sixth in rushing yards and scoring 10 touchdowns, Williams didn’t crack the top-10 and was named in the honorable mentions.

“Productive, tough as s---, runs hard, brings the juice, has improved as a pass catcher and really good in protection,” said one NFL coordinator. “Just doesn't have the high-end traits of some of the others."

That’s generally a very fair analysis of Williams. He’s the player that every coach wants in the running back room. He’s a tough, reliable player in the offense, but he simply lacks the traits that would otherwise earn him a spot inside the top-10.

Williams Benefits From an Elite Situation

Williams remains a player who benefits from one of the most running-back-friendly systems in the NFL while running behind an elite run-blocking offensive line. His explosiveness is average at best and he lacks the consistent ability to create on his own.

Last season, the Rams had the best run-blocking offensive line via PFF with a run-block grade of 87.6. That was the highest-graded run-blocking offensive line since 2021. Their 5.5 adjusted line yards according to FTN fantasy also led the NFL. Adjusted line yards takes all running back carries and assigns responsibility to the offensive line. The Rams also had a 74 percent run-block win rate, which trailed only the Buffalo Bills.

Despite the advantage in the system and blocking, Williams still ranked 21st in explosive run rate and 25th in missed tackles forced per attempt. He also averaged 0.6 rush yards over expected per attempt and exactly 0 EPA per rush.

Again, and to be clear, that’s not to say that Williams isn’t a good player, but he is what he is. He’s Luis Arraez from the San Francisco Giants. He’s a great pure contact and singles hitter, but he also struggles to hit home runs. Williams had a 62.9 percent rushing success rate in 2025, which is insanely high. That’s valuable to an offense in both football and baseball, but at some point an offense needs explosiveness.

Corum Brings the Explosiveness

That’s why the Rams offense needs to use Blake Corum more in 2026. While it was a smaller sample size than Williams, Corum out-performed him in nearly every non-volume statistic. Corum’s 6.9 percent explosive run rate was the sixth-best among running backs with at least 100 carries. He also ranked just outside the top-10 in missed tackles forced per attempt.

	Kyren Williams	Blake Corum
Yards Per Carry	4.83	5.14
Explosive Run Rate	4.6%	6.9%
Success Rate	62.9%	59.3%
Missed Tackles Forced/Att.	0.15	0.18
Yards Before Contact	2.48	2.9
EPA/Att.	0.00	0.09
Rush Yards Over Expected	0.6	0.9
Rushing DVOA	20.1%	24.3%

*Stats via Fantasy Points Data, FTN, and NFL Pro

He gives the Rams’ offense the creativity and explosiveness, while still remaining successful. His 59.3 percent rushing success rate only trailed Williams. Corum also led the NFL in EPA per attempt and ranked ninth in rushing yards over expected per attempt.

Most importantly, Corum also took significant strides in pass protection. After Week 11 through the NFC Championship game, Corum allowed the same number of pressures as Williams and ranked 12th in pass-blocking efficiency via PFF among qualifying running backs. His pass-blocking grade also ranked 14th. There’s still room for improvement in that area as well as catching the football, but the upside is there.

A More Balanced Workload Makes Sense

That doesn’t mean that Corum should overtake Williams as the starter. However, Williams got 55.7 percent of the team’s rushing attempts last season to Corum’s 31.2 percent. It would be nice to see the gap become closer to what the Seattle Seahawks had last season with Kenneth Walker and Zach Charbonnet. Walker got 43.6 percent of the carries while Charbonnet had 38.8 percent.

There is a lot of debate when it comes to the Rams’ running backs and which player should be used more. Even before last season, the answer was never either Williams or Corum. The answer has always been to use both together and the Rams saw the benefit of that in 2025 as they had one of the best running back duos in the NFL.

Still, Corum seems to be ready to take another step forward and handle an even heavier workload. Williams should still be the starter given his reliability and value in the offense. However, Corum deserves more carries given his production last season. If McVay can continue to balance the workload between the two players to maximize their skillsets, the running game could take another step forward in 2026.

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