Rams running back breaks the bank open with extension

The bullhorn sounded to signal the end of joint practice in Oxnard, CA, between the Dallas Cowboys and the Los Angeles Rams. Seconds later, as players dressed in different shades of blue ceased throwing the football and tackling, I heard my phone buzzer go off. As I walked to the press conference area, I looked down to read an alert on my phone: “Rams: Done deal!

The Rams have signed RB Kyren Williams to a three-year contract extension. Learn more here” with a link displayed. After reading the message, I looked up from my phone to see Kyren Williams standing right in front of me. I was indeed about to “learn more” - up close and personal.

‘First off, I want to start by thanking the Lord and everybody who made this possible,” said Williams. He continued, “ Mr. Kroenke, (Coach)McVey, Les Snead, my agent Drew Rosenhaus and I guess myself, my mom, my family just for just believing in me allowing me to be able to live out my dream (…) To me, it means everything, a whole lot that just organization believes and I'm gonna continue to keep giving them everything that I have in my soul to make sure that they know that.

The Rams selected Williams in the fifth round and 164th overall in the 2022 NFL Draft. After suffering both a broken foot and a high ankle sprain during his rookie 2022 season, he rebounded and was named to the Pro Bowl in 2023.  He has been a key component of the Rams' offense over the past two years, and according to Pro Football Reference, in his three seasons with the Rams, he has an impressive 2,582 rushing yards, 26 rushing touchdowns, 75 receptions for 464 receiving yards, and 5 receiving touchdowns. As of 2024, Williams was still on his rookie contract, and he was looking to extend in 2025. Despite being in negotiations during training camp, Williams still showed up and showed out.

“I didn't want to give off any type of ill feeling to my teammates, to the organization, to myself,” said Williams. He continued, “ Like I said, for me it was just showing up and being present, continue to be the man that you know  I inspire  to be,  continue to be the athlete that I aspire to be, the teammate, the brother, everything in my life,  just continue to get better and the only way I knew how to do that was be around the people that love me and be around people that I love and so for me it was like why wouldn't you show up, this is what you do”

Head Coach Sean McVay also commented on Williams presence at practice despite having a new contract in place saying, “what I am appreciative of just from my vantage point is that he came,  I think he had a lot of trust in Drew (his agent) a lot of trust in you know the way that things were going behind the scenes and he focused on what he could control. And did that make it, you know, more likely for us to want to work good faith with him, yeah of course, but that doesn't mean if we have a situation in the future where somebody does decide to hold out that that's like the end all be all but (…)we're very grateful and that's a tribute to who he is (…) When you do go through these different circumstances people confirm what you had hoped that you had always felt about him and that's all he continues to do is confirm why he's a special and rare human.”

The new deal is reportedly worth $33 million with $23 million guaranteed and will keep Williams in Rams blue and gold through 2028.