‘OUTWORKING THE DOUBT’
Kerwynn Williams keeps grinding to stick with Cards
Bruce Arians couldn’t have picked a better phrase to describe Kerwynn Williams when asked about the Cardinals’ fourth-year running back and the difficulty it takes to neutralize the nimble, 5-foot-8 dynamo when he carries the ball.
“He’s one of those little ping pong balls that bounces in there,” the Cardinals coach said. “He’s hard to bring down.”
He’s been tackled before and even dropped for losses, but nobody has really been able to bring down Kerwynn Arthur Logan Williams,
the ninth-to-last pick in the 2013 NFL draft out of Utah State. If he were that easy to bring down, he surely would have caved in by now.
In his first 21 months in the NFL after being selected by Indianapolis, Williams endured 15 roster moves among the Colts, Chargers and Cardinals. He’s been released and put on the street no fewer than nine times, only to be brought back, re-signed, demoted to the practice squad and promoted to the active roster.
All told, he’s been in involved in a grand total of 25 roster moves in just four short seasons. Before ever seeing NFL action, in Week 14 of the 2014 season, Williams yo-yoed his way on and off the Cardinals’ roster four times in 37 days. That’s almost as short as the gestation period of a gerbil.
“Your work ethic is the only thing that you really can control,” Williams said. “You really can’t control the decisions that other people make. You try to focus on that, but the only thing I was focused on was outworking everybody and outworking the doubt, really. Outworking everybody’s doubt in me.
“I’ve never been anyone’s first pick. Ever. I’ve never slept on that and I’ve never really relied on that, someone else picking me. I always pick myself first. I really try to outwork the doubt.”
The 26-year-old Williams, born in Las Vegas, has become incredibly valuable to the Cardinals the past two weeks. A spot player in the past who saw most of his work on special teams and on rare occasions, as a quarterback in Wildcat formations, he’s moved up to No. 1 from as low as No. 5 on the team’s depth chart at running back.
Following injuries to star David Johnson and then Adrian Peterson, not to mention the roster releases of Chris Johnson and Andre Ellington, Williams has stepped up and, despite playing with two cracked and bruised ribs, responded with 150 rushing yards in his past two games as the Cardinals’ featured back.
That’s an average of 4.7 yards per rushing attempt, which would rank 10th in the league if he qualified for the required number of carries.
It’s even more compelling when considering that Williams has run for 97 yards and 73 yards against the Rams and the Titans – and hopes to do more this Sunday when the Cardinals (6-7) play at the Redskins (5-8) against the seventhworst rush defense in the NFL – without the benefit of any “blue juice” injections to relieve the pain in his ribs.
'Blue juice'
That’s what former Cardinals fullback and current radio personality and team color commentator Ron Wolfley likes to refer to as the series of cortisone shots he’d customarily take to the cartilage between his ribs when he was hurting during portions of his 10 NFL seasons, which included four years as a Pro Bowl wedge buster on special teams.
“Being dependable and accountable was the self-imposed charge of every player in the NFL when I was in the league,” Wolfley said. “Part of being dependable was being available. And the best way to make sure you were available was to get shot up to do it.
“We called it ‘blue juice’ and if you wanted it for minor afflictions, doctors would give it to you. It was a badge of honor to me and I’d do it all over again without hesitation.”
Williams spent the past two games playing with only a partial additional padding device attached to his shoulder pads. It wasn’t anything big or special. There was no flak jacket, no metal belt and no "blue juice" of any kind. That says a lot about a player who’s routinely been exposed to the editor’s veritable cutting-room floor and has lived a career on the edge of unemployment.
“The guys in the locker room know how tough he is,” Arians said. “They always have. But it’s a testament to him, how tough he is and what it means to him.”
It’s easy to get tough when they keep trying to fire you.
But nothing Williams has done surprises Arians, who keeps bringing him back.
“Never. This is what we expected. That’s why he’s here,” the coach said. “He couldn’t catch punts two years ago to save his life, but he catches them really good now. That’s just Kerwynn. Whatever it takes for him to make the team, he’s going to do it, but then when he makes it and you put him out there, you’re getting his best.”
Arians has referred to Williams as the “Energizer Bunny,” saying he “never slows down.” And he hasn’t. Not at all. A pingpong ball like Williams almost seems to be meant to be kept in constant, fluid motion. It doesn’t matter that his career to this point has usually been stuck in a constant state of flux.
After all, it’s what he has become accustomed to since turning pro.
“Williams is running hard. He runs hard and I think he’s got good vision,” Redskins coach Jay Gruden said. “When you lose a guy like David Johnson, a 1,000-yard rusher and a 1,000yard receiver, it’s going to have an impact on your offense. But I think Williams has done a good job filling in and has shown a lot of promise.”