Fantasy preview: Damien Williams

Fantasy Potential: Damien Williams is a second year RB for the Miami Dolphins. He went undrafted out of Oklahoma last year but proved to be a pretty effective receiving option out of the backfield for the Dolphins, as you can see from his receiving stats from last year. Based on the fact that he will probably be a third down option for the Phins he is probably in the RB 4 or 5 slot and until his touches increase I cannot recommend starting him, even as a flex.

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Why: Damien Williams is very talented. That much is not really up for debate, he is not exactly a pounding between the tackles runner but does pretty much everything else you want from a running back. However as anyone who has played fantasy football can tell you, talent is not always what matters in fantasy football. No, the real formula is something more like talent x opportunity x penchant to score. Williams is not given a huge opportunity from a usage standpoint and isn’t the number 1, 2, or 3 option in the redzone. With all this being said He is still someone that should be kept on your radar, specifically if you are in a PPR league. This is because he is special in open space. There is one play in particular that I am thinking of where the Dolphins were in a third and long against the Bills, he caught the ball out of the flat and quickly accelerated while evading defenders to turn what initially seemed like a bad play into an 8 yard gain. He also had six catches with 50 yards and a touchdown, both of those stats coming in the receiving category. In a standard PPR league that is a quick 17 points without even counting any rushing contributions. The question is will he get the opportunity to do that, and that is not the kind of questions you want to have about someone you are supposed to depend on.

Williams will absolutely be undrafted in any draft that allows for players to be picked that are not on the Dolphins’ roster. However based on his usage and the fact he is already familiar with Lazor’s offense…he is worth keeping an eye on.