Transcript of Kyren Williams: “I want Everything”

All right. I am so excited to be welcoming in Pro Bowler Kyren Williams, the Running Back of the Los Angeles Rams, also the Walter Payton Man of the Year Nominee of the Los Angeles Rams. But it's not just Khyren Williams. A little peek behind the curtain, if you're listening to the podcast version of this. I got Khyren and Jordan Rodriegue of The Athletic with me, of course, my co-host on NFL Daily, and we were going to do it in three different windows. But the RAMs sound... The room that Khyren was in wasn't that great. So now Khyren's on Jordan's computer, and we're just doing this all together because we're a nontraditional podcast. Kyren, you came late in the draft. You're a nontraditional superstar running back. So hopefully it feels comfortable to you. Welcome to NFL Daily. Appreciate you coming on.

Appreciate you guys for having me. I'm used to uncomfortable situations, so this is all normal.

I want to go more on that. Is Sean McVay a coach that puts you guys in uncomfortable situations, or are you talking more about Sundays in the games you're playing?

Well, I think that's the way that I approach life. You expect comfort, but in those uncomfortable positions is where you really learn who you are, what you're about, and the things that you're made of. And so little things like, God's going to throw you curveballs every single day, and you just got to expect to hit them and roll with the punches. So me, it's whatever. I'm always ready for whatever it is.

One of the things that I think watching you grow into your career over the last couple of years is you seek those situations out. You go looking for them to the point where sometimes your coaches have to pull you back or pull you away, almost protecting you from yourself because you put so much into everything. How has that balance gone for you this year? Because you want everything all the time.

I take it as a compliment, but also that as I'm further going on my career, I realized that I got to be more careful and be more aware of what I do to my body and just what I do physically. But for me, like you said, I've always grown up to just accept those uncomfortable situations, whether that's in life, football or even school, when I was in school. And For me, it's all normal. But you're able to learn. You're able to learn from those things. And I learned this year. I learned that I don't have to go hard all the time. I can slow down, take a step back, take care of my body, listen to my body. That just allows me be able to be set up. We're at the position I'm at today where I feel like I'm only getting it stronger as this season's going. It's week 16, and I just peaked in the weight room today. It's like stuff like that allows me to be able to... You don't got to go hard all the time. Just be smart and do what you got to do when the time is necessary.

Wait, you peaked in the weight room today? What are we talking about here?

On the force plate jumps, we do those every Wednesday when we work out. And so today, you had your hands on your hips, and it was a vertical jump. There's a trend that's on my end going like this. And so I beat last week's jump. So I just credit to the work that I'm putting in, the smart work that I'm putting in after practice and the things in the weight room that I'm doing.

I'm jealous. We get to holiday season and I'm like, my body's falling apart at this time of year. I'm like, I used to watch all these coaches. They come into training camp and they're always in great shape. And then by December, that was like the old NFL. Now all your coaches are in great shape. I got to admit, Sean and everything. I wanted to ask you a question. So I was thinking, what's a signature Kyren Williams run? I had my own answer. I gave it as a thought experiment to myself. Yourself, but I'd rather hear you answer it first, and then I'll give you my take. What's a signature Kyren run?

Honestly, I want to say I like it all, honestly. But this past two years, three years that I've been here with the Rans, we've been really honing on the 12th duo and whatever that is, actually 13 or 12, whatever. But having those double team blocks and be able to press the line of scrimmage and make those linebackers pick where they want to go and then being able to jump cut from C-Gap to C-gap. But either way. For me, that's what we've been known as here at the Rams. But I really feel like any run is a Kyren Williams run. I just got to get the opportunities.

Yeah, especially if it comes with your favorite, the Dume Block or the Blast Block in front of it. That's something that the Rams, and particularly behind you, Kyren, have been working to install and overhaul over the past couple of years with you being very much the heartbeat of that.

What's that been like for you?

You were a big deal in college, but to You have, after the start of your career, I know you hit some adversity, but then coming in the last two years, and this is built around you. It's built for what you do well. What has that been like for you?

Man, it's a blessing because I've always wanted to be in this position. I've always wanted to be right where I'm at, playing professional football at the highest level and being successful at that. Like you said, I ran into a diversity, but that was my test. That was my calling. That was my really, are you ready for the NFL? Do you want to be in the NFL? When I went through that stuff, that's just the We talked about earlier, the uncomfortable positions or situations that I was able to be in at an early stage in my career that allows me to be able to set up to where I'm at now. But just being able to have, like you said, offense run game built around who I am and what I do best. It's a blessing because I love this game. I love being able to play football. Like you said, I want everything. Whenever Coach McVay is thinking about me in the run game, that's all I've ever wanted while playing football.

Yeah, you gave me a very exquisient Noah's answer, which I appreciate. It's pretty close to what I thought about, too, although Jordan picked up on more of it than I could because that's why I have her on the side. I can't do an interview by myself.

Oh, that's for sure. Thanks, Kyren.

You're a good teacher.

I just can't do it by myself. I got to have her sit, and you guys are cracking me up watching this. People should check this out on YouTube.

I told Kieran, he's too young for this, but this is like a Collinsworth slide situation. I should have really just pulled into the frame like this.

It's true. I was thinking signature runs because Derek Henry, a signature, one of his runs, it's going to have a stiff arm in it. My favorite running back of all time, Frank Orr, if I'm thinking of what a signature run would be, it'd be him being so patient behind the hole that you can't even believe. Then hits something so hard before it even opens. You're like, how did you know that was going to open when it opens? For you, it would be a little bit of that. It'd be what you said. It'd be a run that would have great vision, that would have great footwork, where the Just the lateral agility, and that, to me, is what separates you and a lot of great running backs over the lateral agility to hit that hole and know when to hit it. But the one thing you didn't say is, to me, a signature Kyren run would be you'd get low at the end of it and you'd run someone over because I think the physicality that you bring at your size and everything that... I didn't know about that until I saw it in your second year.

Are you still surprising defenders with that? And do you think I picked a good signature run?

Yeah, but I like to be physical. I just like that nature of people are not expecting me to come and really hit you or come and really try to run you over. Being able to have that in the back, it creates a lot of opportunities for me to be able to also find that safety, line them up and be the one-on-one. When you say signature, yes, being patient, hitting that hole when it's not even there. But I also want to get into being able to make that safety mission, creating those big buttons. I'm still working for those. I'm going to get those. They're coming soon. I promise you that because that's just what I see. But just being able to have that ability, too, when people know that you aren't scared to lower your pad and run them over because that was the talk of me coming in No, he's not big enough or he's too small. I was like, Who's too small? I'll run you over. I'll be putting beans on their butt. It all doesn't matter. That's out of the story now. Being able to set that early on in my NFL career, that was huge for me.

Like you said, seeing that in the second year, many people didn't know that.

I think one last thing on the signature run, we have to finish it with a flourish, whether you get hit or not. Whenever you do get hit before you're ready to go down, he gets up and you will stomp your feet and you have You have that emotion. You're often facing the end zone and you can't see your lineman running behind you. The lineman, they feel that and they come running up to you and they reset the line and you're ready to go again. How do you transfer that energy? That's part of your signature too. Is that energy that you transfer among that line?

Definitely. I think that's part of the biggest thing, honestly, what I bring to this game is I'm able to bring the people around me with me. That's just by my play style and who I am as a person. I tell you, I love this game. I love this game. I have so much joy going there and being able to play this game and be around these professional athletes who I once looked up to, and now I'm with them and practicing with them and going to war with them. To me, that's just what it's all about. And so when I'm out there having fun, everybody can feel it. It's affectionate, and it's not anything that I try to do. That's who I am. I remember when I was younger, that's how my dad was. When he was coaching us, and literally, he was always the hype, man. He was always screaming. He's always getting us rowdy to go. And I just feel like that's how the game of football is played. Another thing, too, in high school, I remember my freshman year, I was a freshman playing varsity, and I got hit super hard on the sideline.

I caught a ball, got smacked, and everybody was like, wow, he got hit. But my one thing my coach said is, you bounced up so fast that it made the defender feel like he didn't even do anything. And so you'll see me now like, I'll be the first one above the ground. I'm not staying on the ground because you didn't do anything to me. You didn't affect me. That hit, I didn't feel that. And so that's just another mental cycle thing that I try to bring to the game that allows me to have that edge over defenders and allows me to have that energy for my team.

So we're talking to you before you head to the East Coast, Jets this week, big game, first time all All season, you guys are now tied for first place. And I'll be real with you. We're unbiased here at NFL Daily, but I've been living in LA now. We're a little biased. I've been here for 11 years now, and I didn't know what my daughter was going to decide to do as a football fan or even if she would become a football fan. But she went out to the Coliseum when the Rams were playing the Cowboys in the play-offs. What was that? Six years ago now with Jared Goff in his second year. She became a Ram fan. Early on this season, she's a huge Kyron Williams fan. Early on this season, you guys are struggling there at one and four. I'm like, I'm sorry, Ellis. I know it's disappointing. She spends her whole Sunday building around. I'm just like, this might not be the year. She's just like, Oh, no, they'll be there at the end. That's what they do. They improve as it goes. And I was like, Yeah, but Stafford's getting a little older and there's a lot of injuries.

She's like, Oh, no, they'll be there at the end. That's what they do. It is what you guys do. What is it about this Rams team, including when you've been there, especially these last two years, that it does seem like you guys are peaking at this time of the year and just what are you looking forward to the rest of the season?

Yeah. I couldn't tell you a pinpoint example or a situation that happened to us. I honestly think Coach McVeigh, he's a great coach, and he's able to verbalize. I don't think many coaches are able to verbalize what we need to do. And he was able to do that. He sat us down and he told us that we needed a sense of urgency. We told us that we need to really come together as a group to go compete our best off because sitting at one and four, we knew we weren't that type of team. We were better than what we were putting out there on the field and putting out there on tape. So just him having that realization of him being able to be real with us and show us what the reality of the situation was. Like you said, we did have injuries. We didn't have Cooper Cout, we didn't have Puka, we didn't have Steve, we didn't have the people that we needed to be the explosive offense that we always were to be. Just him being able to be real with us, but still put that confidence in us, still be able to move us and motivate us to be in the right direction.

I feel like that's what the biggest turning point for this team was, because he sat us down told us that we had 36 days left together. And when you think about it, 36 days is a lot. And when you think about it, you don't want to lose in those 36 days. You don't want to come in December playing losing football. That's just no fun in the NFL. Having him do that and the creative response that he created on his team is hats off to him. And hats off to what he's about, what he's doing. But I just feel like right now, like you said, we're hitting at the right time, and we just got to continue to stay tight, stay focused, and not worry about who's in front of us. I always tell anybody, anybody who plays faceless and nameless. It don't matter who it is. Every Sunday, we know that we got a game, but it don't matter who. So this weekend, it happens to be the Jets, but it doesn't change anything that we do as offense, defense, and special teams. We're continuing to keep focusing on us and what we do to make us who we are.

I think the thing that's so crazy when you talk to elite competitors such as yourself and players across the league is that switch that you flip for opponents, right? Then you flip another switch when you get into the community. And it is so personal to you. I mean, this Walter Payton Man of the Year nomination, I know, is so deeply personal to you for a number of reasons, inclusive to how you found out about it. Can you remind us and take us through that moment?

I'll tell you the whole story, honestly. So growing up in St. Louis, my dad was a football player. My uncles were football players. And so that football was something I love to do. My mom, she wouldn't let me play because she was always nervous about me getting hurt. So I had to wait. I had to play flag football. I had to do that first. But like I said, football is my love and my passion. And so being able to have the St. Louis Rams in St. Louis and have a professional team to be able to look up to, that's all I wanted to be. In eighth grade, I was blessed to be able to have friends whose parents were able to take me to games, take me to the Edwards Jones domes, and be able to really put eyes to what it was to live out that dream. One day, my grandma, my mémie, she had tickets to the Steven Jackson Foundation of 39 Wishes, where I was able to go to the stadium, be on the field, and meet every single player on the ramp, just You just walk up to the table and they sign autographs.

When I got to Steven Jackson, I knew who Steven Jackson was from just being loving football so much and watching the Ram so much. When I got to Steven Jackson, it was just a real moment. Me putting real eyes on somebody who I wanted to be. That's what changed my life, honestly. I was able to picture. And I remember going home and telling mom, I'm going to be an NFL player. This is what I want to be. And ever since that moment, I fell deeply in love with football. And I was still at every Ram's game, and I was still just wanting to be that person that I saw that one time when I was eight years old with Steven Jackson. And I was always at the games. So when Steven Jackson, he came to our team meeting, I was like, oh, wow, Steven Jackson's here. What's he going to tell us about? I had no idea. And then the picture popped up, the picture of me and him and I when I was little. And I was like, okay, maybe he's just showing the connection that we had. I met Steven I've been texting before.

Nothing about Walter Payton Manning here, nothing. And then he told me, Oh, your buddy here, he's a Walter Payton Manning of the Year nominee. And I was shocked because I thought what I was doing It was something I was supposed to do. That's where God put me in this position to be, to be able to be a blessing to a blessing. I know how it feels to be impacted. I know how it feels to be inspired. I know how it feels to really put eyes to the person that you want to be. And so That's just my main focus. My main focus is to inspire the youth because what Steven Jackson did for me, little did he know, allowed me to be where I'm at, allowed me to be able to be in the position that I am as an NFL running back. And he gave that kid a dream that was a reality. He told me to dream big, and I dreamed the biggest. And so being able to have that and being able to know who I am and how I got to where I'm at, it's only right that I continue to inspire the youth, because you never know who was going to take that and run with it.

And so that's why I'm always... If I see a kid and they see me and they know who I am, I'm always like, yes, yes, yes, yes, I'm blessed enough to be right here because of what he did.

Now, have you watched the video back? Oh, yeah. Okay. Because we had it already. Now you talked it through. Let's put it on. I'm going to put it on for our listeners just to check it out. This was that moment where he introduces you.

This guy right here, I had a chance to meet him. In this year, at that time, I met this young man. No, I did not know he would become a ram and on his way to being a great.

When you leave it all on the field, you help people forget and you give them inspiration.

That's why I'm here this morning, because one of our others here have done that.

Our buddy here is a Walter Payne Ramsey nominee for this season. It goes on from there. A very cool moment. Yeah, all the work that you do in the community, people should check it out, but you served as a captain for the United Way of the Greater LA's Walk United LA to help raise over a million dollars to fight cycles of poverty. It's a long list. It's amazing all the different things that you've been a part of, met with members of the LA Rams wheelchair football team. You're involved in the school district out here. We work at Inglewood, too, at Sofi Stadium, and you're involved in the LAUSD, the school district, trying to help kids there in the Inglewood school system and different local children battling life threatening medical conditions, all these different events, and it goes on. What it made me think reading all this stuff is, Yeah, you must be saying yes to every opportunity. The thing that stands out to me not knowing you, Kyren, was just, I watch how this man of the Year stuff goes, and it's always almost like a thing that they reward veterans that have been around a long time for because it's such a hard honor to get that you have to wait.

Steven Jackson talked about it, too. He got in 2012, and I'm thinking, yeah, that's towards the end of his Ram's tenure. For you to get that as such a young player in your third season, I think that says a lot about you.

No, for sure. Like you said, it's a blessing to be where I'm at, and I know how I got to here. I'm be a blessing to other people to make sure that whatever it is that they're going through, they know that it's going to be okay because we're all human. Everybody's going through something. And so I just try to be a blessing for a blessing for sure.

But you're blessing to NFL Daily. We appreciate you. And you're blessing to my friend Jordan Rodriegue here, sharing the screen with her. And hopefully we helped you out, too.

I'm just here. He's the one who's on the screen. Yeah. And thank you, Kyren, because We know we hit a sudden change at you here with the location and everything. So thank you so much for being flexible. That's what it's all about. Got to stay on your toes.

You got to stay on your toes. You'll never know what's going to happen. You got to be ready for whatever.

Yeah, I appreciate it. It's cool. Maybe do in honor of Steven Jackson this week and do one of those Steven Jackson run, just run through. That guy was a beast. You must have loved him growing up.

Yeah, I got you. I wish he had a signature celebration that I could do.

I wish I could do a signature celebration. I hear that. He was one of my favorites, one been rammed for life, rammed back in St. Louis, and now rammed now. I appreciate you, Kyren. Thank you, Jordan. We'll catch you next time.

Thank you so much. Appreciate you.