Kansas City Chiefs: Four Breakout Candidates in 2019
By Kole Berrey
Every year in the NFL, new stars are born and players come out of nowhere and take the league by storm. Last year, the hot pick to have one of these breakout years was none other than Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
Boy, did Patrick Mahomes prove all of those predictions right and then some for the Kansas City Chiefs!
His meteoric rise in his first year as a starter is something that the league has never seen before, and in just one season Mahomes is one of, if not the, brightest star in the NFL.
The question is, who is set to do the same in 2019?
Could the Chiefs get lucky and have back to back break out stars take the league by storm? If so, who are the biggest candidates to do just that?
Four names stand out as players who could potentially breakout, whether it be finally living up to their potential or someone coming out of nowhere to cement his status as a star.
Breakout Candidate Number 1: Damien Williams
Damien Williams is by far and away the Chiefs most likely player to “breakout”, and that is for a multitude of reasons. The reason I put breakout for Williams in quotes is because he may have already busted out, it just went unnoticed by some because of the small sample size.
Williams took over as the Chiefs starting running back in Week 15 after Spencer Ware was injured in a Chiefs comeback win over the Baltimore Ravens. In his last five games (including playoffs) Williams rushed for 362 yards and five touchdowns. To add to this, he had 210 receiving yards and four receiving touchdowns.
These numbers may not scream star to some, but factoring in his last five games as the starter for the Chiefs, Williams averaged 114.4 scrimmage yards and almost two touchdowns per game. This also came on only 69 rush attempts, which means his yard per carry average was 5.2.
The only game Williams had more than 13 carries was against Indianapolis, where he had 25 attempts for 129 yards. If someone were to project Williams’ average amount of carries and catches in his last five games over a full 16 game season, he would end the year with 1,164 yards, 16 rushing touchdowns, 672 receiving yards, and 14 receiving touchdowns.
That is insane production at the running back position, especially if one considers that those rushing numbers came on only 14 rushes per game. That number should rise closer to 18-20, as Offensive Coordinator Eric Bieniemy came out last week and tabbed Damien Williams the undisputed starter moving forward, scoffing at the idea of a running back by committee approach.
In the age of fantasy football, production on this level would make Williams’ name start circulating and gaining traction among fans. This in itself would help cement him as a breakout star.
The fact that Williams produced well last year when he played and he was tabbed as the starter makes me feel very confident going forward he will get the touches needed to reach statistics associated with a break out player.
This prediction goes past just Williams’ talent and increased workload, however. It is also about the players and minds around him. Having an MVP quarterback commanding your huddle and an offensive genius calling your plays is going to make Williams’ job that much easier. So is having weapons around him like Sammy Watkins and Travis Kelce that command attention.
If you factor in the fact the Chiefs are returning four starters on an offensive line that ranked 13th by PFF last year (especially considering injuries forced Kansas City to play seven different interior offensive linemen in 2018) and then you can see how Williams’ is in the PERFECT position to become a household name by the end of the 2019 season.