Are Rams content with single-gear running back?

Rams have an All-Pro running back but do they need someone faster in the room?

Both Sean McVay and Les Snead have made it clear this offseason that the Rams want to give Kyren Williams an extension this year, and team usually does everything they openly say they’re going to do so fans should expect that contract to happen. But it the team totally satisfied with its running back room?

No team in the NFL last season had fewer runs of 20+ yards than the L.A. Rams, totaling just two from its running backs. This falls in line with Williams’ known skillset, which is that he’s a relatively limited athlete (4.65 40-yard dash, 32” vertical at 194 lbs) and he’s been able to succeed in the NFL thanks to his combination of vision and situation/surroundings.

Williams rushed for 1,299 yards and 14 touchdowns in 2024, just one year after he led the NFL with 95.3 yards per game and scored 12 times in 12 starts.

But should the Rams draft a running back with a higher ceiling?

The 2025 running back has been cited as one of the best in recent memory, a sentiment echoed by Broncos GM George Paton this week when he mentioned that there could be good backs available from round 2 to round 6.

The only running back guaranteed to go in the first round is Ashton Jeanty, and he could go as early as top-6, with UNC’s Omarion Hampton being the only other player at the position who is often mocked on day one. However, don’t be surprised if there is a third and a fourth.

The Rams do not hold a second round pick.

They do have a late first round pick, a third round pick, and a third round compensatory pick.

Blake Corum’s status

But the ink is barely dry on the rookie contract for Blake Corum, a third round pick in 2024 who seemingly had that higher ceiling than Williams but whose first season was somewhere between a disappointment and a disaster:

In his one shot to prove what he can do, the Rams started Corum in Week 18 against the Seahawks and he had two carries for 10 yards prior to breaking his forearm in the second quarter. McVay insisted that Corum would be a “really good player for us for a long time” after the injury, but does that mean the team should completely overlook a running back class with better prospects than him or Williams?

Second and Third Tier of Running Backs

Players who could sneak into the first round include Ohio State’s TreVeyon Henderson (pictured on the home page) and Quinshon Judkins.

As national championship teammates last season:

• Judkins had 1,060 yards, 14 TD, 161 receiving yards
• Henderson had 1,016 yards, 10 TD, 284 receiving yards

They are both being projected around the 40-50 range on big boards and they both pass the athleticism test, with Judkins having slightly better size measurements than Henderson.

If the Rams trade down, they could pick up more assets and potentially target a running back in the second round, although this move would not go over well with most fans.

After all, the team has Williams (who they could extend before the draft) and Corum already.

But the third round and day three would be other opportunities to add a running back.

Later round running backs

The next tier would include:

• Kaleb Johnson, Iowa
• Cameron Skattebo, Arizona State
• DJ Giddens, Kansas State
• Dylan Sampson, Tennessee
• Damien Martinez, Miami
• Trevor Etienne, Georgia

And so on, including Raheim Sanders, Donovant Edwards, Devin Neal, Bhayshul Tuten, Ollie Gordon, RJ Harvey, and more.

For speed, Tuten of Virginia Tech led the way at the combine with a 4.32 40-yard dash. He also ran a 1.49 10-yard split and 40.5” vertical at 206 lbs.

Projected as a fourth round pick, maybe Tuten is the “explosive” athlete that McVay and Snead should want to add as a complement to Kyren Williams and competition for Corum and Rivers.

It doesn’t have to be a first round pick — it’s not like the Rams “need to go big or go home”.

But they do need to go fast.