During the off-season Kansas City Chiefs assistant Greg Lewis moved from coaching the team’s wide receivers, to become the new running backs coach. After a first full day of practicing in pads, Kansas City Chiefs running back Darrel Williams spoke to reporters about what it’s been like learning from coach Lewis.
“The biggest thing is learning stuff from a wide receiver’s perspective,” said Williams. “When we line up wide, learning different routes, how to run those things. I think it’s helping all our game as a running back unit.”
Heading into the 2021 season, Williams enters camp as the pre-season favorite to be the team’s second-string running back. After battling to avoid the chopping block as an undrafted free agent early in his career, followed by taking a back seat to veterans LeSean McCoy and Le’Veon Bell the last two seasons, Williams is finally being seen by the coaching staff as a legitimate contributor that can rotate with starter Clyde Edwards-Helaire.
When Williams was asked if the presence of McCoy or Bell ever frustrated him, he simply said he just looked at his situation with the Chiefs the same way when he was in college.
“I don’t look at it as frustration,” he said. “I’m a competitor. So I just look at it as they’re just bringing in more competition. I went to LSU. Every year, we bring in five stars, four stars. So it was normal to me. I just came in. I compete. Do what I have to do and just keep moving,” he replied.
Although he’s the front-runner for the second running back job, Williams understands he still has to earn it as training camp continues to unfold.
“Yeah it is my job for the taking,” he acknowledged. “Like I said, I just have to keep doing like I’m doing, keep being consistent, just keep moving forward.”
The only thing set in stone inside the Chiefs’ running backs room, is Williams’ former LSU teammate Clyde Edwards-Helaire remains the team’s main feature back. As the two former Tigers role into their second season as teammates at the pro level, Williams said their relationship is as strong as ever.
“I think our relationship has pretty much been the same,” said Williams. “We’re kind of closer since I’m in the league and he’s in the league now. We’re always together. We eat together. We do pretty much everything together. You see us walking in, we’re walking in together. That’s my brother, and that’s going to forever be my brother.”
The most popular topic to talk about when referring to Chiefs camp has been the offensive line. Following a full week of training camp, Williams offered his insight into what it’s been like playing behind the Chiefs’ biggest investment from this past off-season.
“Those guys, they’re doing a good job upfront.,” Williams declared. “They’re still getting everything. They’re still learning, but they’re picking up everything fast and as an offense, we’re moving real good right now.”
But that doesn’t mean there won’t be a few growing pains, now that padded practices have begun.
“I think the field’s just going to be a little more different,” he said. “We just got to keep building; that’s why we’ve got training camp. We just have to keep on building and move from there.”
Going into his fourth season in the NFL, with the Chiefs, Williams has gradually climbed the ladder from an undrafted free agent, who was never a starter in college, to beating the odds to get to where he’s competing for a prominent role inside Andy Reid’s offense.
You can certainly add this to the list of things to watch as Chiefs Training Camp progresses.
