KC Chiefs: Damien Williams with surprisingly low Madden 20 rating

By Shade Piper | Jul 17, 2019

Kansas City Chiefs running back Damien Williams (26) (Photo by Scott Winters/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

Thirty-four. That’s the number of running backs with a higher Madden rating than KC Chiefs running back Damien Williams in this year’s Madden player ratings, which was released on Monday.

Now, was Damien Williams expected to be a top ten rated running back in Madden 20? Probably not. But, a top 32 rating would’ve been the absolute minimum that most NFL fans would’ve guessed. But instead, 34 – I repeat 34 – running backs are rated higher than Williams, who had a nice 2018 season with the Kansas City Chiefs in the final few months of the season.

This puts Williams in a four-way tie for the 35th overall running back rating at 80. At this spot, it has him rated behind three 49ers running backs, multiple second-string running backs including a 36-year-old Frank Gore, and tied with the Browns third running back.

Williams doesn’t have a huge sample size with only three regular-season starts and two playoff starts last season, but when you take a look at those five starts you’ll see what looks to be a quality starting running back.

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In his three regular-season starts, Williams tallied 203 yards rushing on 5.97 yards per rush and 14 receptions for 119 yards. He turned these attempts into four touchdowns in this three-game span, three rushing and one receiving.

He continued his success in the postseason, starting both games and finishing the season on five straight starts and six games straight with at least one touch down. His postseason numbers ended up at 159 yards rushing on 4.5 yards per rush and ten receptions for 91 yards. He also had four touchdowns in the two playoff games, including three in the AFC championship game alone.

Again this is in a small sample size, but extrapolating these numbers out to predict a 16-game stat line you get 1158 yards rushing, 672 yards receiving, and a gaudy 25 touchdowns.

Now, the touchdown number is a little unrealistic, but if you take the touchdowns down to a more average number and he is still able to produce 1000+ yards rushing and 600+ yards receiving, this will still be a pretty good stat line.

Just to give everyone an idea of a few of the guys rated higher than him, Frank Gore is 36 now and has basically started every game he has ever played in and has never once reached 600 yards receiving. There have only been three times in his 14-year career so far where he had more than 1,158 yards rushing.

An argument could be made that Gore has done more as a whole in his career than Damien Williams, which is a fair point. If this is why Gore is rated higher, then how do you explain Austin Ekeler being rated higher than both of them at 82 on only three career starts? There are also guys like C.J. Anderson, Duke Johnson Jr, Jerick McKinnon, Matt Breida, and Tevin Coleman rated at 80 or higher.

Williams will be a fun Madden player rating to watch as the season progresses because with the production/success that Andy Reid running backs usually have and the fact that he is rated lower than multiple second and even third-string running backs, Williams could be one of the biggest risers in Madden rating at the running back position.

So just for reference as the season progresses here is Damien Williams’ full Madden rating numbers:

Overall: 80

Awareness: 83
Speed: 90
Acceleration: 91
Agility: 88
Strength: 67
Elusiveness: 82
Ball Carrier Vision: 82
Carrying: 84
Juke Move: 88
Spin Move: 82
Stiff Arm: 74
Trucking: 74
Catching: 70
Catch in Traffic: 74

Next. All-Time Rushing Touchdown Leaders in Chiefs History. dark

What you guys think Chiefs Kingdom? Is Madden sleeping on Damien Williams?

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