The Rams have many decisions to sort through this offseason, including the fates of some longtime cornerstones of their offense. And, in the case of Kyren Williams, a relatively new one.
Williams just completed his third season, and second as the Rams’ primary starting at running back. He’s rushed for more than 1,000 yards in each of those seasons, including a 316-carry, 1,299-yard, 14-touchdown performance in 2024 in which he stayed injury-free for the first time in his career.
Now, entering the final year of his rookie contract, the former fifth-round pick is eligible for a contract extension. Speaking with reporters Friday, Rams general manager Les Snead indicated that is something the team would be open to.
“I think that’s something that’s going to be on the plate,” Snead said. “He would be someone that after three years you could begin discussing, let’s call it, renegotiating, starting anew. Because I do think Kyren is someone who is a Ram and has a very impactful role for us.”
Snead’s comments echoed those of head coach Sean McVay a day earlier, who said, “I’m really proud of the body of work that Kyren has put together, what he represents, and all the different things that we really want to be about as a football team. He’s checking a lot of those boxes. I think that’s certainly something that will be discussed as well.”
Running back has not been a position in which the Rams have heavily invested financially since giving Todd Gurley a four-year, $60 million contract extension ahead of the 2018 season. Since Gurley’s release following the 2019 season, the Rams’ leading rushers each year have all been players on rookie contracts.
And the Rams did spend third-round draft capital on running back Blake Corum in last year’s draft. Corum rushed 58 times for 207 yards as a rookie in limited work behind Williams.
Snead said Corum’s presence would not prevent a potential Williams extension.
“I think we would probably take the philosophy that you’re going to need more than one running back, so we’ll always try to keep that room somewhat healthy in terms of depth,” Snead said. “Even with Kyren. He’s had two great years, but there is a possibility, right, where he needs a partner to take some load off of him. He’s probably played more than any running back over the last two years. So that’s something to think about.”
The Rams typically do not come to terms on rookie extensions following a player’s third season. The last time they did was with receiver Cooper Kupp prior to the 2020 season.
“Sometimes it is tougher to sign someone who’s not in, let’s call it, their final year,” Snead said. “Could be a difference in numbers, but a lot of times there’s no real deadline so it can drag on.”
Beyond Williams’ status when asked about specific players’ futures, Snead, like McVay a day before, said the Rams’ leadership group still needs to meet next week to chart out the organization’s path.
That group will consist of Snead, McVay, president Kevin Demoff and VP of football and business administration Tony Pastoors, as well as contributions from the coaching staff, the personnel staff and the athletic performance staff. They will decide how the organization wants to move forward, including with Kupp and quarterback Matthew Stafford.
Kupp has already said he wants to play football next year, but he’s not sure if he’s in the team’s future plans. Stafford, 36, said he needs to think through his future, but he indicated he thinks he still has football left in his body. Last offseason, Stafford and the Rams engaged in prolonged contract restructuring negotiations that reportedly would make it easy for the sides to part ways if they so decided.
When the Rams were going into their salary cap reset following the 2022 season, Snead referred to Stafford, Kupp and the since-retired Aaron Donald as the Rams’ “weight-bearing walls” when explaining their place with the organization moving forward.
Asked Friday is he still views Stafford and Kupp as “weight-bearing walls,” Snead said, “They’ve definitely been weight-bearing walls. I know where you’re going with that, kind of what’s next for them. … There’s that subset of players that we’ll talk about that are on the back nine of their career and how many more years are they going to play NFL football and how many more years will we work together as a Ram? That’s always the puzzle that we have to put together. We haven’t done that yet. We’ll figure it out.”
Snead continued, “I can say that, if you’re speaking to Cooper and Matthew, I don’t even know if I can put into words what they’ve meant to this organization. I probably have a picture behind me somewhere where it’s Cooper Kupp catching a ball at SoFi on the last weekend of the NFL season, a ball thrown by Matthew Stafford that changed the course of this franchise and there’s a banner hanging in that stadium that only one team gets a year. I’ll say that. What can I say about that? That moment’s in a lot of memories and a lot of pictures. That’s what they mean to us.”