2015 NFL Draft: Karlos Williams Scouting Report

Florida State’s Karlos Williams struggled during his senior year after a promising junior campaign. Dalvin Cook took a majority of his carries away this past year. Williams is an intriguing player since this was only his second season playing RB. Here is a breakdown of Karlos Williams strengths and weaknesses.

Strengths

Karlos Williams is built like an NFL running back. At 6’1 225 lbs Williams has a strong, well built body that can absorb NFL level contact. Williams came to Florida St. as a five-star safety who converted to running back at FSU. A fearless runner who attacks the hole at full speed and is not afraid to initiate contact with the defender. He can run through a defender and out run them as well, he has some real talent.

Williams has an exciting combination of

power

and

speed

that makes him tough to tackle when he’s coming at a defender full speed. Like Le’Veon Bell of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Williams gains momentum quickly, has a natural forward lean when he runs and is hard to bring down when he gets to his full speed. Junior year at Florida State Williams averaged

8.0

yards per carry with 11 touchdowns. He showed

great

vision which is rare for a player playing his first season at RB in 2013.

His sudden quickness and vision was on display during this cutback run against Miami.

Weaknesses

Williams obviously still needs to develop his whole feel as a running back. He just hasn’t played running back that much and allows holes to close up right in front of his eyes. Williams can be a game breaker when he takes it outside of the tackles but he isn’t quite polished yet between the tackles. He lost carries to freshman Dalvin Cook this year and saw his yards per carry drop from 8.0 during his junior year to 4.6 his senior season. Williams really took a plunge on some draft boards this season. Struggled with his consistency and also has a problem with lowering his pads when contact arrives.

He also comes with some character concerns, he was investigated for domestic violence but was not charged in 2014.

Draft Stock

Karlos Williams has lost some steam in people’s eyes. The domestic violence case killed his draft stock. He has the talent to be drafted in rounds 4-5 but could fall undrafted if team’s do not want to deal with the off the field issues. If a team believes in their front office and coaching staff they should take a late round flier on Williams. As of now, he’s viewed as a late round prospect.