Brian Losness-USA TODAY Sports
The Indianapolis Colts used their first of two seventh round picks on another possible need, and took running back Kerwynn Williams out of Utah State. Williams is 5-foot-8, 195 pounds and is a short but very explosive back. He’s basically a younger Donald Brown.
Williams makes his presence known outside the tackle box but isn’t afraid to run between the tackles. He’s also very good at catching passes out of the backfield and known to just go get the ball.
If the Colts can block well for Williams, he can break short yardage scenarios into huge gains. Williams has tremendous breakaway speed and is good at making defenders miss. He’s extremely speedy and if given a hole, he will take it downfield.
He had 20 touchdowns last season as it was his first year starting for the Aggies. He backed up fellow NFL running backs Robert Turbin and Michael Smith at Utah State.
Williams probably won’t get too many touches with an already-crowded backfield as Vick Ballard, Brown and Delone Carter will all return. Those three are likely to split the carries, so adding a fourth to that mix will be difficult.
His impact will be felt in the return game. He likely will be a kick or punt returner from day one. That will relieve last year’s rookie T.Y. Hilton from having to do that as he made a huge impact on the offensive game. Returning kicks was just too dangerous a task to use him for after he quickly became one of Andrew Luck‘s favorite targets.
The pick of Williams was for depth at running back but more for the return game.
