Pittsburgh Steelers: DeAngelo Williams has a tough test

Last season, current Pittsburgh Steelers running back DeAngelo Williams looked “Done” (note the capital “D”), and, in fact, he never played in a single game after the first of November. A combination of injuries and ineffective play made him seem like a quizzical signing for the Steelers in free agency, as GM Kevin Colbert and the organization decided to hand the former Carolina Panthers franchise icon a two-year, $4 million deal with a $1.13 million signing bonus.

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Yes, that is undoubtedly a cheap contract, but I was surprised to see Williams earn any amount of guaranteed money after appearing in just eight games last season and averaging 3.5 yards per carry.

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Williams immediately proved me wrong in a huge way, because in his first start in Week 1 with superstar RB Le’Veon Bell– the best in the league when combining everything that goes into playing the position- he looked like the 2008 version of himself. You know, the edition that averaged a whopping 5.5 yards per carry, trampled the league for over 1,500 yards, and helped lead the Panthers to a playoff bye.

Whether it was cutting up New England Patriots defenders or absorbing first contact from some of the league’s better run defenders, this lighter version of Williams didn’t look like a washed-up 32-year-old. Instead, he looked like the beast from his college days at Memphis or his best games in Carolina, and his big-time performances in Weeks 1 and 2 (he treated fantasy owners to three rushing touchdowns against a San Francisco 49ers defense that decided not to show up) make Bell’s season-ending injury seem softer than it should be.

Williams’s first start with Bell officially done for the season will come tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. ET against the Oakland Raiders. Just as Williams has surprised people like me who thought he would be an inefficient, plodding RB2 for Pittsburgh, the Raiders have completely shattered expectations here in Derek Carr‘s second season.

Not only is Carr playing like a top-ten quarterback, but the Raiders defense looks better than expected. Being 18th in the NFL in scoring defense doesn’t seem like much of an accomplishment on the surface, but if you told me that a secondary giving Dave Amerson, DJ Hayden, and Larry Asante major snaps wouldn’t be a complete laughing stock, then I would have dismissed the notion as preposterous.

Well, the Raiders are only 16th in net yards per pass attempt allowed, according to Pro-Football Reference, so chalk that up as exceeding expectations. However, the hallmark of this improved defense under Jack Del Rio and Ken Norton Jr. is the run defense, and newly signed defensive tackle Dan Williams, who has long been one of the NFL’s most criminally underrated players, has been a large part of that.

Khalil Mack, Justin Tuck, and Williams spearhead a Raiders front seven that has helped hold down opponents to a meager 3.6 yards per carry. Perhaps more impressively, the Raiders have allowed the second-least rushing yards in the NFL (580), and they haven’t surrendered 100 yards on the ground since Week 2! They started the season with back-to-back 100-yard games allowed, but the Raiders have been stuffing up running backs since then.

This means that Williams will have a tough test ahead of him, but, based on what he did with Bell out earlier this year, it isn’t unreasonable to bet on him. One key aspect of this game to note is Williams’s role in the passing game, because that’s something Bell obviously excelled at. There isn’t a back in the NFL who can hold a candle to what Bell can do as a receiver out of the backfield, whereas Williams hasn’t caught 30 passes in a season since his rookie year in 2006.

Aug 29, 2015; Orchard Park, NY, USA; Pittsburgh Steelers running back DeAngelo Williams (34) during the game against the Buffalo Bills at Ralph Wilson Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Hoffman-USA TODAY Sports

Thanks to the likes of Curtis Lofton, the Raiders have struggled to cover running backs with a little over 50 receiving yards per game allowed to RBs.

Williams caught just one pass against New England and had four catches for 15 yards in Week 2, so we’ll see if he can help himself by taking advantage of a mis-match or two against the Raiders linebackers.

Whatever Williams’s role will be in Week 9, there’s no doubt that he’ll be a workhorse with Jordan Todman and Isaiah Pead as the lone backs on the roster besides him.

Those two are clear change-of-pace guys, which is why we can expect Williams to have a similar workload to Week 1 and Week 2, when he had 21 and 20 carries, respectively, with more touches in Week 2 by virtue of the receptions.

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The Steelers are the favorites tomorrow, but we’ll see what kind of an individual performances the resurgent Williams will have against a tough Raiders run defense that is led by another critical free agent signing by the name of “Williams”.

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