FanPost

Make The Case: Andre Williams

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Andre Williams is a third year vet at Runningback. After an poor 2015 season, can he rebound and keep his roster spot?

The Player
Andre Williams is running back out of Boston College. He was a finalist for the Heisman Trophy and was taken in the fourth round of the 2014 Draft by the New York Giants. In his rookie season, he ended up starting due to injury to Rashad Jennings. In 2015, he had a worse than expected season. Now, his roster spot is up for grabs. Williams is listed at 5'11" and 227 pounds

The Stats

Year

GP

GS

Carries

Yds

Avg

Lng

Tds

Rec

Yds

Yds/Rec

TDs

2014

16

7

217

721

3.3

50

7

18

130

7.2

0

2015

16

0

88

257

2.9

35

1

1

7

7

0

Career

32

7

305

978

3.2

50

8

19

137

7.1

-

Injury Report
In week 17 of the 2014 season, Williams was listed as questionable with a shoulder injury.

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The Case For

Coach McAdoo has voiced multiple times that he is not willing to give up on Williams. For all we know, this could be a smokescreen so that opponents don't know the Giants draft strategy. Williams was reported on losing about 12 pounds in an attempt to slim down and gain more speed. Williams had a not so great 2015 campaign, but a lot of that can be faulted with the running back by committee approach, and poor blocking. While Williams may not have the greatest vision, it is hard to run when the defensive lineman is there by the time you have the ball.

I'm going to re-use some of the images used by Chris Pflum in his writeup of Williams.

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Here, everyone is blocking their man, except Tyron Crawford beats Donnell, and meets Williams in the backfield.

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Here, Williams has the hole, except that Dwayne Harris has failed to effectively move his man out of the way, so that when No. 41 makes an arm tackle, the safety has a better angle and Williams is tackled for a three yard gain.

All in all, Williams doesn't suffer from a lack of vision. Often, he will hit the right hole, only to have it close up before he can run through or while he is in it. It also doesn't help that the forced RBBC kept him out of rhythm and often led to him being misused, or the play calling while Williams was on the field being too predictable.

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The Case Against

Simply put, Williams was downright awful in 2015. Worse for Williams, the Giants drafted Paul Perkins in the fifth round. Now, Williams is battling out the oft-injured Orleans Darkwa, Bobby Rainey, who had 5 carries last year, and Marshaun Coprich. Coprich appears to be Williams biggest competition, as Darkwa has landed on the IR. Coprich is almost a polar opposite of Williams. Coprich has been praised for his ability to make yardage himself. Coprich v Williams is one of the big battles to watch. If Coprich can prove to the Giants that he can catch out of the backfield, something Williams has not done well, he will tilt the odds in his favor. Williams really has little versatility. His catching ability has been awful, and some reports out of camp have him not impressing. Even if McAdoo isn't ready to give up if Williams falls flat, McAdoo should, and I would like to think, would cut the back.

Conclusion

Williams needs to prove he can at least be okay catching it out of the backfield to increase his chances of landing a roster spot. If Williams can improve his versatility, that would allow for more diverse playcalling while he was on the field. Williams also needs to prove that he can be the power back that the Giants need.

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