Player outlook
Javonte Williams and the Cowboys' run-game bet.
Williams earned 1,201 rushing yards in 2025 and plays for an offense designed around ground attack. The question is whether his receiving role will expand enough to justify a fourth-round selection in PPR.
Javonte Williams was handed 252 carries by Dallas in 2025 and produced 1,201 rushing yards. That is the heaviest workload the Cowboys gave to any running back that season, and it pushed him to the fourth round of most redraft boards heading into 2026. Yet PPR formats tell a different story: his 51 targets and 35 catches were not workload-caliber numbers, and 24 of those catches came in the first eight games. The final eight brought 11.
The split matters because it shapes how much room he has to improve without regressing. Dallas kept Williams at 69% snap share and continues to build its offense around the ground game under new offensive coordinator Klayton Adams, who arrived from Arizona known for run-heavy designs. But a receiving renaissance is not guaranteed, and that is the gap between a discount-bin floor and a flex-round ceiling.
Ball Ranks has Williams 39th overall and RB18 in PPR, projecting 203.5 points for the season. His 36.8 ADP matches that valuation closely—no green light to pounce, no red flag to avoid.
The workload foundation is real, but snap share alone does not finish seasons
Williams carried 252 times in 2025, an average of 15.75 carries per game. His red-zone work was also secure: he scored 11 rushing touchdowns despite an offense that added weapons. That is genuine lead-back volume in a run-first system.
The snap-share picture reinforces it. He was on the field for 69% of Dallas's offensive snaps, a number that held even as second-year back Jaydon Blue carved out the change-of-pace and passing-down work behind him. Williams' floor came from consistent carries.
Continuity should maintain that foundation. Head coach Brian Schottenheimer and offensive coordinator Klayton Adams — who came over from Arizona's run-heavy staff before the 2025 season — both return, so the scheme that fed Williams 15.8 carries a game is not changing. The team's own camp coverage has the offense building on last season rather than starting over.
But snap percentage is not the same as PPR usage. Williams touched the ball nearly 18 times a game, which sounds elite until you split it: 15.8 carries and just over two catches. In a format that hands out a full point per reception, the shape of the touches matters as much as the count.
Javonte Williams's depth chart
DAL at RB, using the league's published depth chart.
| # | Player | 2025 snap shareAverage share of offensive snaps in the games he played, 2025 regular season. Green = entrenched, amber = rotational, gray = fringe. Check GP: a backup can post a real share in mop-up games while barely playing all season. | GPGames he appeared in, 2025 regular season — the denominator behind the snap share | 2025 finish2025 fantasy finish at the position (PPR) | 2026 projModel One's projected 2026 rank at the position (PPR) | ADPAverage draft position in real drafts this week — whether the market is drafting him at all is its own threat signal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Javonte Williams | 69%Snap share is averaged over the games he actually played (16). | 16 | RB12 | RB18 | 36.8 |
| 1 | Hunter LuepkeFBFullback — a blocking back whose snaps usually overlap the lead back's instead of replacing them. | 21%Snap share is averaged over the games he actually played (14). | 14 | RB76 | RB107 | undrafted |
| 2 | Jaydon Blue | 26%Snap share is averaged over the games he actually played (5). | 5 | RB94 | RB110 | 168.9 |
| 3 | Phil Mafah | 18%Snap share is averaged over the games he actually played (1). | 1 | RB107 | RB62 | undrafted |
| 4 | Malik Davis | 21%Snap share is averaged over the games he actually played (10). | 10 | RB73 | RB81 | 152.1 |
Snap share and finish are 2025; projections and ADP are 2026 (Model One, PPR). "Undrafted" means no ADP in real drafts this week.
The receiving split was sharp, and it happened late
Williams caught 24 passes on 34 targets in his first eight games of 2025. His final eight brought 11 catches on 17 targets. Half the receiving role simply disappeared, in the format where every one of those catches carries an extra point.
The rushing volume stayed flat across halves — 124 carries, then 128 — so this was not a benching. But the touchdowns followed the same downhill path as the targets: eight rushing scores in the first eight games, three in the last eight. His full-season line leaned heavily on a hot first half, and 11 rushing touchdowns on 1,201 yards is a rate that usually gives some back the following year.
The upside case is that the Cowboys are actively working on the receiving half. Camp reports have Dallas deliberately involving Williams in the screen game after a season in which he was one of the league's least productive backs per target. If the early-season catch pace returns for a full year, the PPR gap closes on its own.
The downside is that Jaydon Blue takes the passing-down role outright. Williams would then be a touchdown-dependent RB2 — strong in standard scoring, less safe in PPR.
The Cowboys' schedule favors the run game
Dallas's 2026 opponents allowed 116.6 rushing yards per game in 2025, placing the matchup difficulty near the middle of the league (rank 15 of 32, where 1 is toughest). The passing schedule is softer: opponents allowed 234 pass yards per game (rank 28, softer defense). That gap rewards running backs on pass-heavy offenses less and ground-attack backs like Williams proportionally more.
Dallas also retains its offensive continuity from 2025, so the system Williams learned does not reset.
The honest wrinkle is his ceiling in PPR
Model One projects Williams for 203.5 PPR points, good for RB18. That baseline assumes his rushing touches remain steady and receiving volume averages his 2025 pace. But if he catches only 30-35 passes (below his heavy-use start), his projection would land closer to 180-185 points.
Likewise, the 11 rushing touchdowns in 2025 could regress to eight or nine — and they were already fading, with just three over the final eight games.
The upside version requires either a receiving renaissance or continued TD volume. If Williams operates at his early-season target pace for a full year and scores ten times, he could clear 220 points and outpace his ADP.
The verdict
Williams is fairly priced at pick 37-38 in PPR drafts. Take him in the fourth round if receiving work is your priority in the backfield; pass if you have already invested heavily in pass-catching backs. His floor is solid because the Cowboys will feed him, but his ceiling depends on targets, not carries.
See Williams' live projection and history on his player profile, or compare him with every running back on the complete 2026 board.
Sources and data notes
- Ball Ranks board, season history, weekly splits, depth chart, and schedule calculation: August 29, 2026 snapshot.
- Javonte Williams 2025 game-by-game stats: 252 carries for 1,201 yards and 11 TDs, 51 targets for 35 catches and 137 yards; first-eight vs final-eight splits computed from nflverse weekly data.
- Cowboys training camp coverage: offensive continuity under Brian Schottenheimer and Klayton Adams and the emphasis on Williams' receiving work.