Throughout the 2025 NFL season, SB Nation’s Doug Farrar will write about the game’s Secret Superstars — those players whose performances might slip under the radar for whatever reasons. In this installment, it’s time to give some love to Dallas Cowboys running back Javonte Williams, who seems to have come all the way back from a horrible knee injury that looked to scuttle his career a few years ago.
In the 2024 season, the Dallas Cowboys had just six rushing touchdowns, the NFL’s worst total. To put that in perspective, the Philadelphia Eagles had SEVEN rushing touchdowns in their 55-23 pantsing of the Washington Commanders in the NFC Championship Game, and the Buffalo Bills led the league with 32 rushing scores. The Cowboys ranked 29th in Rushing EPA at -60.0, ahead of only the Miami Dolphins, the Las Vegas Raiders, and the Tennessee Titans (who probably should have kept that Derrick Henry guy). Dallas had just 42 runs of 10 or more yards; the Baltimore Ravens with the aforementioned Derrick Henry led the league with 104.
To expect a functional offense with what the Cowboys put together in the run game was a fool’s errand. With Rico Dowdle and the last remnants of Zeke Elliott as the primary backs, Dallas just didn’t have the guys to get it done. And as the 2025 Cowboys were assessing other financial decisions for better or worse, they weren’t going to pull a Howie Roseman/Saquon Barkley lever and sign a veteran running back to a large contract and hope that back could define their offense. Instead, they signed former Denver Broncos second-round pick Javonte Williams to a one-year, $3 million contract with $2 million guaranteed.
The best back in the 2021 draft class (in my humble opinion), Williams came out of North Carolina as a speed back with destructive power — he forced 71 missed tackles in just 157 carries in 2020, and he also amassed 27 carries of 15 or more yards. Williams’ rookie season with the Broncos seemed to have him on the path — he gained 903 yards and scored four touchdowns on 203 carries, with 63 forced missed tackles, and nine runs of 15 or more yards.
Then, everything sadly changed. In Week 4 of the 2022 season, Williams suffered a brutal knee injury in which he had damage to his ACL. LCL, and posterolateral corner. That season was obviously over for him, he was not the same back in 2023, and even in 2024 for the Broncos, he became more of a receiving back. It seemed that Javonte Williams had become yet another promising player whose potential was scuttled by horrible injury luck, and we might never see what he could have become.
That a back of Williams’ previous caliber was available on the cheap like that told the story, but Williams was about to craft another tale. Through two games with the Cowboys, he’s gained 151 yards and scored three rushing touchdowns on 33 carries, and while he’s done more than just establish himself as a fine red-zone back for a team in desperate need of that, this one skill certainly helps.
Against the New York Giants on Sunday in a 40-37 win in which there were seven scoring plays in the fourth quarter alone for both teams, Williams gained 97 yards and scored a touchdown on his 18 carries. He forced six missed tackles, and had three runs of 10 or more yards. The passing game was obviously the main thing in this game — Dak Prescott threw the ball 52 times, completing 38 passes for 361 yards, two touchdowns, one interception, and a passer rating of 96.7 — but when Dallas needed explosive plays in the run game, they were there for once.
“God, you know, I tell you what, man, I saw he got 97 yards,” head coach Brian Schottenheimer said of Williams after the win. “I wish he would have gotten three more. I’ve been the high guy on Javonte the whole time. And the way he plays this game, man, I’m just telling you. If you find a running back in the National Football League that plays harder than this guy, more physical than this guy, I’d love to see it. And I’m sure there are some that are on that same level.
“But I don’t think there’s anybody that plays the game more physical. And I could not be more happy for that young man with what he’s had to go through, where he’s been. And it was so cool to see him break through.
“But he’s just getting started. I can promise you that.”
Well, when the Cowboys play the Chicago Bears next Sunday, maybe Schottenheimer can engineer a few more carries to get Williams that 100-yard game — which would be his first since he had two in his rookie season (including a 17-carry, 111-yard game against the Cowboys). It’s about the only thing Javonte Williams hasn’t done so far for his new team.
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