What COVID-19 NFL opt outs will have the most impact in 2020?
By Dustin Baker
RB. 3. player. Scouting Report. Pick Analysis. Kansas City Chiefs. Damien Williams. 124
Damien Williams’ opt-out is impactful for a totally different set of reasons.
Foremost, Williams turned 28-years-old in April. This is not excessively old, but for a running back, it typically is an age that signifies the twilight of one’s playing career, or at least the beginning of it. The only reasons given for Williams’ choice to opt-out were the generic “concerns over COVID” ones which, again, are completely reasonable.
This does, though, leave Damien Williams in a curious spot. During every season of his six-year NFL career, he has been used sparingly. The Dolphins featured him as a reserve tailback for four years and then the Kansas City Chiefs brought him aboard in a backup capacity starting in the 2018 season.
It was not until last year that the Chiefs started getting him ample touches of the football. Even then, he was not used profusely. The most important aspect of the 2019 season, for Williams’ sake, was that Kansas City trusted him the playoffs and thus fed him the pigskin.
It worked.
The Chiefs won their first Super Bowl in 50 years, and Williams nearly won a Super Bowl MVP award. His stock was at the highest it has even been (and probably ever will be).
In related news, the Chiefs drafted tailback Clyde Edwards-Helaire from LSU in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft. Williams probably would have received the opportunity to get a crack at the RB1 position in training camp. After all, he is riding the momentum of his Lombardi Trophy.
But that train has left the station. Clyde Edwards-Helaire will be the RB1 for the Kanas City Chiefs. Williams will have to compete somewhere in 2021 for a reduced role. His preference to forego the season significantly impacted himself and enabled the Edwards-Helaire Era to begin sooner than planned.