Film review: Examining Darrel Williams’ effort vs. the Browns

On Sunday, the Kansas City Chiefs were able to stave off a late comeback attempt by the Cleveland Browns, advancing to their third straight AFC Championship with a 22-17 victory.

Team stars like wide receiver Tyreek Hill, tight end Travis Kelce, safety Tyrann Mathieu and rookie cornerback L’Jarius Sneed all had big games. But one player unexpectedly had a big role in the win: third-string running back Darrel Williams, who got the start over Le’Veon Bell. It proved to be the correct call.

Down the stretch, Williams has mostly been utilized as Kansas City’s third-down back, getting significant touches only when injuries have occurred. With starter Clyde Edwards-Helaire unavailable on Sunday, he was on the field for 79% of the offensive snaps — the most he’s had all season.

Williams had himself a day, finishing the game with 13 carries for 78 yards and four catches for 16 yards — and picking up multiple big first downs along the way.

Let’s dive into the film room to see how he played such a significant role in helping the Chiefs pull out a postseason victory.

Darrel Williams

As we saw in the Week 14 against the Denver Broncos, Williams runs the ball differently than either Edwards-Helaire or Bell. Compared to the other two runners — who run a lot more patiently, utilizing their blockers to set up defenders — he is a lot more aggressive, preferring to get downhill as quickly as possible. Neither style is right or wrong — just different — but behind the Chiefs' offensive line (and against the defensive fronts they’ve been facing), Williams’ downhill style has been paying dividends.

The Chiefs offensive line played well against the Browns, but it isn’t the league’s best run-blocking unit. Since they don’t always sustain their blocks well — or generate much movement — Edwards-Helaire and Bell have sometimes been swallowed up (or forced into short gains) while trying to work their more-patient styles. Williams, on the other hand, wants to run behind his pads, getting upfield as quickly as possible. His style seems to mesh better with his team’s offensive line, allowing him to take advantage of small glimpses of daylight — rather than trying to turn those glimpses into a full-blown day at the beach.

One cut and go

First and foremost, I love this pin and pull sweep concept.

Here, the Chiefs use uncovered linemen to block down, while the linemen who are covered up — a defender is in their gap to the play side on the left — pull around the edge. It’s a quick and simple way to get blockers into space. In terms of bouncing outside, bending into his initial aiming point or banging it back inside, the running back’s rules are similar to those of an outside zone run.

Even here on this perimeter run, Williams‘ downhill running style is evident. His initial aiming point is between the left tackle and the pulling left guard. With the defensive end slipping by, Williams is forced tight to the left tackle.

Some running backs might opt to slow-play it, allowing the pulling back-side guard and left tackle to clear out the defenders — but instead, Williams plants his foot in the ground and cuts inside both of them. From the cut, he immediately squares up his shoulders and gets upfield for a nice gain.

Neither approach is right or wrong, but Williams’ aggressive style allows him to read the leverage and immediately take what’s there — similar to the way talented running backs like Derrick Henry, Arian Foster and Chris Johnson do it.

Vision at pace

One of the hardest things for a running back to do is to parse out vision against patience. Being able to see a hole that is there is great — but being able to see a hole that is about to be there is excellent. Sitting behind a double-team block until the hole emerges is good — but seeing a hole open up while still accelerating in a different direction is excellent. Williams is really good with the latter.

Here we see that while Williams isn’t particularly patient, he makes up for it with his vision at pace.

Even after making his initial cut and starting to accelerate forward, Williams keeps looking; he’s able to read how the leverage between the and offensive and defensive lines is changing. As he accelerates through the play side B-gap, he reads the defensive tackle working off the block to fill the hole. This allows him to keep working upfield — but still make the cut to the back-side A-gap and continue.

Once he gets upfield, Williams consistently runs behind his pads, balancing between avoiding contact and welcoming it. He falls forward through almost everything — and can easily rip through half-hearted attempts to bring him to the ground.

Running behind his pads

It’s super fun when a running back can completely run over a poor defender — but sometimes, just running through contact is equally important. Williams has shown the ability to run through defenders — but often, he just sets himself up to run through non-square contact and pick up extra yards.

As we see here, once he gets squared up and is moving upfield, Williams does a good job veering away from the contact by the closing defensive back and converging linebacker. He breaks through a weak leg-tackle attempt and is then able to maintain his balance through another defender pushing him. It’s not until a safety finally has him squared up does he go down — but Williams continues to gain yardage during the tackle.

While this isn’t the flashiest broken tackle or yards after contact play anyone has ever put on film, it’s quite effective — and consistent within Williams’ game. For a physical runner, the ability to alter his path and body angle — without sacrificing speed — is a really nice skill to have in your back pocket.

Pre-injury burst

At the end of the last season, Williams suffered a hamstring injury that looked slightly more severe than at first thought. At the start of this season, Williams just never looked as explosive as he did in college — or before his 2019 injury. That’s now changed for the better.

While Williams still isn’t the fastest (or most explosive) NFL running back, he now shows noticeably more juice than earlier in the year. For his size, he’s always had good feet — and has been able to make lateral cuts on the move — but his ability to explode upfield off a single cut is now returning. As we’ve seen in these clips, that’s helped his running style.

Pass catching prowess

As the Chiefs’ third-down running back, everyone accepted that Williams was good in pass protection — and that he was a quality receiver out of the backfield. All that was missing was dynamic ability as a running back. Now, Williams is starting to look like his pre-injury self.

Something that all the great pass-catching running backs do — which can occasionally go unnoticed — is perfect their approach to the football. No matter the throw (or route), they always approach the football well — and catch it cleanly so they can keep their momentum.

This little swing route doesn’t look overly impressive, but Williams’ ability to alter his initial route path for the late throw allows him to keep the ball out in front of him. Even after the adjustment, he’s still outrunning the ball; he adds a little hop while bringing it in. This puts his feet behind him — while still maintaining forward momentum — as he cleanly secures the ball and immediately starts running upfield to pick up the first down.

Watch Williams on every catch. He always alters his route path to secure the catch on the move — rather than stopping and waiting for it — and is always behind the catch point so he can carry his momentum. Finally, he consistently catches the ball cleanly. These are small adjustments — but for a running back to excel as a receiver, making them is incredibly important.

The bottom line

In a perfect world, Edwards-Helaire will be able to return this weekend against the Buffalo Bills — and have a similar performance to the one he had against them earlier this season. Then, as a change-up to Edwards-Helaire’s patient, quick, jitterbug running style, the Chiefs can keep the Bills off-kilter by bringing in an aggressive, downhill hammer who is running exceptionally well right now. Their ability to be effective as both rushers and receivers will be huge.

But even in a less-than-perfect world — in which Williams again has most of the snaps and the Kansas City offensive line continues to show they have something to prove — the way Williams is running should align for another big showing. Even in the passing game, Williams’ excellent hands — and regaining some of his burst — should allow him to continue to be a big weapon.