Kyren Williams Returning Punts? Rams’ Surprising Move Explained | GSMC Chip Shot Football Podcast

we are back here on the gsmc Chip Shot football podcast to jump straight into this pretty unique situation that the Rams and Shawn McVey have gotten themselves into not in any negative way it's just very unusual because um sha McVey being the head coach of the Rams made a couple of announcements yesterday of course all the final details on the final 53 man roster that every NFL team had to reduce to yesterday at the deadline at 4 p.m. eastern time but also in that you kind of order uh your starters in a way if you decide to do that and one of those starters one of the designated um responsibilities for the uh 2024 season will be the punt returner and that would happen to be starting running back Kyon Williams he will be the punt returner for the Los Angeles Rams for 2024 and already it is a little bit odd that your running back is doing that and I'm going to get into My reasonings just after the statement that sea McVey said on it on this decision he said um it's another opportunity for him to get touches and impact the game and you feel comfortable with that because of the confidence in Blake Corum and Ronnie Rivers being able to spell him if need be and he mentioned two guys there backups to Kyon Williams obviously on the running back depth chart but um it was certainly fascinating how this all played out and the reasonings behind it as well because you mention a guy like Ronnie Rivers you know he spent two years with the Rams already 150 rushing yards and no touchdowns on 41 carries so honestly I haven't been keeping up too much with the Los Angeles Rams just in the preseason but he might have looked good um just now entering his third year with the Rams so there could be something there that maybe most of us are just not aware of in regards to how much Ronnie Rivers can contribute to this Rams offense and also the bigger name is Blake corm just because of the notoriety he's had just based on his college career career and also just the last year in college with Michigan obviously winning the national championship um he led the FBS in rushing touchdowns 27 in 15 games also recorded over a th000 yards and four years at Michigan obviously so um uh more notoriety there Antonio Naz thoughts on the Bears um you know I mean I'm I'm a fan of the Bears I think um right off of the bat I haven't been keeping up with Hard Knocks or anything but it seems like people are loving that uh so the Bears just overall on my view of them they're one of the teams I'm most excited to see honestly just on how quickly they've been able to turn turn their entire situation around Keenan DJ Moore obviously from last year you get your quarterback you bring in DeAndre Swift everything is in place I just want to see how quickly it all turns out because I know Caleb is good obviously I believe he's going to be great for them they've never had a quarterback like him so um the quicker this all turns out and how quickly they are able to put everything together it's going to be an interesting journey and when they finally do turn that corner look out for the Bears certainly because they are built to be a good team especially with that defense that doesn't get talked about enough as well they have a lot of good players on that side of the ball as well so yeah just very high on the Bears overall I think like most people are though um I think most people are buying into the Bears especially with Caleb Williams but um to stick on the Rams and just this decision overall um with Blake corm and Ronnie Rivers obviously um The Run game though this is obviously the biggest portion of this discussion right because Kyon Williams being a designated punt returner you know he is going to be out there every time hopefully that you make the opposing team punt on numerous occasions if you're the Rams um he's going to be out there a lot and it's going to fluctuate throughout each game how many times a team punts in a single game compared to other games in the regular season but having him out there um does come with a little bit of risk obviously you play him more obviously he is out there more and that's great to get the ball more in his hands but also um you don't want to stretch it too thin right because as a running back you know he is great last year um he was third in the NFL in rushing yards with over 1100 rushing yards 12 rushing touchdowns second Team all pro and a pro bowl nomination as well so he's coming off of a great year and now you'd expect that to continue on but you don't want to spread it too thin to now where he's also the pun returner you want to have him out there obviously as much as possible on offense so to spread him out in different areas yeah it's good with the reason that Sean McVey said but also um the confidence that you might have in Ronnie rivers and Blake Corum could be up here to start the year but how it actually plays out with how in experien both of these running backs are in the NFL so far will be something to keep track off because obviously last year you know they didn't have Blake Corum and Ronnie Rivers wasn't really a viable option for the Rams so when they didn't have Kyon Williams in four straight games that he was out with a sprained ankle the Rams really struggled in the running game only averaging 94 rushing yards per game and only scoring two rushing touchdowns in those four games that uh Kyon Williams was not there so you saw the pretty negative side of it when kyn Williams isn't out there and he might not be out there as much anymore with you know being on punt return being a little bit more fatigued over the course of an 18 17 Game season um those things start to add up especially as a running back where you're asked to do a lot you know he's not just in there running the ball he's in there blocking he's in there running routes and things like that so um all of that starts to add up and you don't want to find yourself in a situation where kairon gets hurt on a pun return or something like that um and then not only do you lose them in that aspect but in the running game now you have to overly depend on Ronny rivers and Blake Corum and not to say that they're not capable of carrying the uh the mantle at least for a temporary amount of time but um you know Kiron is a very Dynamic player I think he got a lot of people's attention last year so you want to have that available to you as much as possible so making a decision like this isn't something that I was honestly expecting at all but it is sort of the way that um I think the new kickoff rule comes into play now obviously we're talking about punts not kick returns um or kickoffs in that matter so there is a difference there but I believe more teams are going to explore this uh opportunity obviously here with um with having some of their starters out there in the kickoff game more so than not because um I think this is just opening the door to that a little bit Yeah the punt game the punt return aspect of the NFL didn't change but I think having these new this new way of viewing kickoffs as a new opportunity to get yourself better field position or have more of your Dynamic players out there I think gives you more room to explore other avenues like punt returning and now with the Rams having Kyon Williams out there I don't think it would be crazy to see guys like uh Tyreek H Jaylen Wadd Isaiah Pacho Debo Samuel uh for the Saints rahid uh yeah rahid Shahed out there on kickoffs or pun returns I think more so teams are going to be more open to doing that now especially um with the Rams sort of taking the first step in sort of changing the landscape a little bit and everybody now seeing how the kickoffs work a little bit more and how much of an opportunity this could be offensively for these teams I think they're going to be more willing to throw their guys out there but of course this decision could be subject to change I wouldn't be surprised if they decide to go back on this um at some point during the regular season it's just how they're starting off um so you can't blame them for experimenting experimenting too much but um my biggest fear is really just spreading your all your offensive players to thin right um because if you have Kyon Williams out there for a pun return does that open the opport Unity of having somebody else out there for kickoffs potentially I don't think they'd throw Kiren back there in both aspects so maybe puka back there on kickoffs or something like that another one of your receivers on kickoffs um I don't think that's too out of the question now that you're exploring this opportunity of having your starting running back your star running back at that out there for puns so um with the plethora of weapons that the Rams have as well you know it might seem like a situation where you can afford to do something like this but again um injuries happen at the worst time possible more often than not so already having some questions with injuries just over the last few years with Cooper cup puka nakua has been dealing with a hamstring injury this offseason and through the latter portion of training camp so you already have those smaller issues to deal with sort of a mini um fear that you might have with those two guys potentially getting hurt and now there could be more of an opportunity with Kiron Williams being out there on the field more often than not um to potentially get hurt a little bit more and I know that might be um a pessimistic sort of way of thinking about this everybody could get hurt obviously in the NFL that's just the nature of the game but um it's just very unusual to name your starting running back in this position that's where um especially with this new format of kickoffs that's where you thought an opportunity for an unknown guy a undrafted guy a late round draft pick to make his name through special teams especially with how the landscape is changing that's more so where I thought this Avenue was going to take us with discovering these unknown players and then just turning them into special team stars but uh the Rams really threw a curveball in there so you know obviously no one's hoping or anything like that for Kiron to get hurt you're wishing all the best for him because he is a great player big fan of him um just from from last year watching him so hopefully it all turns out well overall I don't think many of us can critique Shawn McVey when it comes to football so definitely an unusual decision here but uh we'll see how it pans out in their week one match up against the Detroit Lions a rematch of one of the playoff games from last year so it should be very exciting and if kyin Williams takes one back to the house using um the punt return I won't speak about it anymore I will not question sha McVey if that happens but we will keep an eye on that once the regular season starts in just less than about a week now or almost over a week now with uh the NFL kicking off in a week from tomorrow so we have that to look forward to but in regards to this show a couple more topics to discuss keeping up the series on my predictions for the final standings in each division we're going to actually hit the NFC East this time um in regards to the yesterday's show we're going to talk about the NFC east in today's show and also to round off this show we're going to talk about some of the players that were placed on the physically unable to perform list to start the regular season they will miss the first four weeks of the NFL so we're going to go through that some big players designated to that list and just giving another round of injury updates before we close out today's episode so a lot more to get to you're listening to the gsmc chipshot football podcast