![\"Javonte](\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-1423461845-e1752411367428.jpg?quality=65&strip=all&w=780\")
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If you have read anything about Javonte Williams over the last year, it might make you wonder how this guy is actually an NFL running back. Which is grossly unfair, on a lot of different levels.<\/p>\n
William\u2019 competence as an NFL player has been questioned perhaps more than any other peripheral\/role player in the league and now, as he enters the 2024 season as the likely starter for the Dallas Cowboys, maybe the tide is turning back the other way.<\/p>\n
Maybe \u2026 Williams might actually be good?<\/strong><\/p>\n Bleacher Report\u2019s Moe Moton predicts Williams as one of just a handful of running backs poised for a \u201cBreakout Season\u201d in 2025.<\/p>\n \u201c(Williams) could have a career year with the Dallas Cowboys after his production tailed off over the last two seasons with the Denver Broncos,\u201d Moton wrote on July 13. \u201cWilliams racked up 1,219 scrimmage yards and seven touchdowns as a rookie in 2021, both of which are his high-water mark to date. In the following season, he tore his ACL, LCL and posterolateral corner. Over the last two years, he\u2019s averaged less than 3.8 yards per carry. Now that he\u2019s multiple years removed from that injury, Williams can claim the lead position in the Cowboys\u2019 wide-open backfield competition and show flashes of the player who accumulated 1,200-plus scrimmage yards before the injuries.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n First Signs Of Hope For Cowboys RBs<\/strong><\/p>\n Getting any sort of outside positive encouragement \u2014 even from a sports writer \u2014 has to be looked at as a good thing for the Cowboys and their running backs room.<\/p>\n One of the things that was mostly lost in last year\u2019s disastrous, 7-10 season was running back Rico Dowdle rushed for over 1,069 yards and 2 touchdowns as he averaged 4.6 yards per game.<\/p>\n Somehow, the Cowboys didn\u2019t value that production enough to make an offer that might keep him around and he left for a 1-year, $2.75 million free agent contract with the Carolina Panthers, where he\u2019ll be the backup to Chuba Hubbard and could split RB2 duties with Travis Etienne.<\/p>\n In his place, the Cowboys made a lot of small, uninspiring moves \u2014 led by signing Williams to a 1-year, $3 million contract on March 10.<\/p>\n Bleacher Report\u2019s Alex Kay had Williams on his list of \u201cStay Away\u201d free agents in the 2025 offseason cycle.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026 Teams should be wary of valuing Williams as a high-level starter,\u201d Kay wrote. \u201cWhile he flashed promise as a rookie in 2021, he suffered a torn ACL the following season and hasn\u2019t been a consistent ball-carrier since. Williams averaged just 3.6 yards per carry in 2023 and 3.7 yards per carry in 2024. His lack of rushing production can\u2019t be blamed on his supporting cast either, as fellow running back Jaleel McLaughlin and rookie Audric Estim\u00e9 both topped 4.0 yards per carry this season.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Cowboys Added 2 Running Backs in 2025 NFL Draft<\/strong><\/p>\n The Cowboys didn\u2019t stop with Williams as far as offseason moves at running back. Dallas also signed Miles Sanders to a 1-year, $1.337 million free agent contract on March 14 and added a pair of running backs in the 2025 NFL draft.<\/p>\n The Cowboys drafted Texas running back Jaydon Blue in the fifth round (No. 149 overall) and Clemson running back Phil Mafah in the seventh round (No. 239 overall).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If you have read anything about Javonte Williams over the last year, it might make you wonder how this guy is actually an NFL running back. Which… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":68265,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl"],"yoast_head":"\n