Darwin Thompson could emerge as next Damien Williams for Chiefs

The Kansas City Chiefs might have found their next emerging star in the backfield with Darwin Thompson’s late heroics in the win over the Raiders on Sunday.

Rewind your Kansas City Chiefs timeline with me back 12 months, to December, 2018, a rollercoaster of a month for the team’s backfield.

One week, the Chiefs had Kareem Hunt, well on his way to a second straight Pro Bowl in as many seasons, backed by a loaded depth chart. The next, the Chiefs had released Hunt and were searching for someone new to emerge from the pack.

In the first 11 games of his career with the Chiefs, Damien Williams had a total of 3 carries. By the end of that December, he’d not only become the featured back on the NFL’s best offense, but Brett Veach had rewarded him with a two-year extension to keep him in K.C. One week, he was rarely used roster fodder. The next, he’s irreplaceable and earning more job security than anyone could have anticipated.

Williams’ ascension to temporary offensive hero in Kansas City started fairly slowly. After Hunt’s release, the Chiefs steadily went to Williams more and more each week. It began with 5 carries for 38 yards in a win over the Oakland Raiders in Week 13, oddly enough. From there, number of touches went from 12 to 16 to 20 by Week 16.

In the playoffs, Williams put on a clinic out of the backfield with 129 rushing yards in the divisional round win over the Indianapolis Colts. Against the New England Patriots, Williams had 3 touchdowns in a frustrating loss. Overall, Williams had 10 touchdowns in the team’s final 7 games—regular and postseason. A new offensive pillar had been installed.

Fast forward to the present. Williams is on the shelf once again in a frustrating season marred by injuries and just poor play overall. He’s averaged 2.1 yards per carry through the first six games of the year before breaking out with a 125 yard rushing effort in Week 7. That was a nice boost for the Chiefs, but unfortunately a rib injury put him back on the shelf in Week 11.

The Chiefs have LeSean McCoy as a tandem back who they want to keep fresh for the stretch run and playoffs, and Damien Williams should be filling that role. Outside of Damien, Darrel Williams is the next man up. Unfortunately he went down with a non-contact injury against the Oakland Raiders in Week 13 and could miss some time. Details are not yet known, but for those who stayed tuned to watch the Chiefs finish off the Raiders in the fourth quarter, you were rewarded with Darwin Thompson’s emergence.

On Sunday night, Thompson entered the fourth quarter with the following career stat line through 7 games (he’s been inactive for several): 5 carries for 8 yards, 3 catches for 10 yards. That’s it. For all the preseason hype he earned, Thompson has been a forgotten rookie, with a snap count so low despite injuries that you might have assumed he was in Andy Reid‘s doghouse for one reason or another. That is, until Sunday.

Thompson’s line against the Raiders isn’t anything overly special, besides the sheer amount of touches. He had 11 carries for 44 yards, a solid 4.0 total, to go with 1 touchdown. Yet if you saw how he earned those yards, you’re likely still talking about him. This was in the fourth quarter with the Chiefs up by 30 or so—it’s basically anti-garbage time. The Raiders knew the Chiefs were going to run and they did it anyway. And Thompson kept picking up the yards.

At first, Thompson hurdled one defender. On the next run, he’d carry the defender with him for an extra two yards. Even when he was caught, he’d fall forward for an additional 1-2 yards to compensate for going down earlier than expected. Then, of course, there was the touchdown run where he was simply not going to be denied. That sort of tenacity wowed Chiefs fans during the preseason and maybe now he’s learned the playbook and how to block well enough to show it on the field.

Given the injuries to the current backs (both D. Williams), the Chiefs could use an emerging hero to help the team move the chains and force opponents to respect the run game. Darwin Thompson is the ideal sort of player who could provide another interesting layer and wrinkle to this team’s offense, exactly the sort provided by Damien Williams just a year ago.