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Prospect evaluation of North Carolina RB Javonte Williams for the 2021 NFL Draft, which includes his strengths, weaknesses, and projection.

Name: Javonte Williams
Position: RB
College: North Carolina
Height: 5’10”
Weight: 220 lbs

= Key Terms =

Grading Scale: Poor, Marginal, Adequate, Solid, Good, Great, Elite

Role: Developmental Player, Backup, Complementary Player, Starter, Franchise Player

= Strengths =

Great mental awareness; quick to process and react to defenders; makes the “heads up” play.

Great vision; patient behind LOS & waits for blocks to set up; understands leverage and angles.

Runs with short strides and choppy steps, especially behind LOS; possesses light feet.

Good burst and explosiveness getting from 1st to 2nd level; solid top-end speed.

Great power at POA; runs with forward shoulder lean and is hard to stop once he’s going downhill.

Very strong and has an effective stiff-arm move; churns legs and pushes pile forward to finish runs.

Elite contact balance; absorbs high, mid, and low contact very well and sheds tackles at a high rate.

Good receiver; soft hands, catches smoothly; good route runner that gets separation vs LBs.

Great in pass protection, maybe even elite already; was asked to stay in & block a lot at UNC in 2020.

Identifies proper blitz pick-up assignments and attacks defenders head-on with physicality.

Good ball security; 4 fumbles in 416 career touches; only 1 in 2020 which shows improvement.

= Weaknesses =

Doesn’t possess lateral explosion in his cuts; won’t make defenders miss with elusiveness.

Needs several steps to gather momentum and throttle down.

Lacks a 2nd gear in the 2nd and 3rd levels of defense.

= Other =

Compact, stocky build with thick lower half.

Pro Comparison: Nick Chubb

UNC's Javonte Williams Named PFF ACC Player of the Year

= Projection (Role & Fit) =

Javonte Williams projects as a Great featured/starting RB with possible Elite upside. He shows proficiency in both gap and zone schemes but he’s at his best when running gap. He can carry a full workload of touches and be used as a runner, receiver, or pass blocker. He offers a well-rounded skill-set with few glaring weaknesses, making his floor relatively high. His calling card as a runner at the NFL level will be his ability to take and absorb contact at a high level and to create yards for himself. He has the requisite burst that makes him very difficult to bring down once he has a good amount of momentum going. His lack of lateral explosion shouldn’t be an issue considering the other traits he brings to the table. Overall, Williams is a very polished RB prospect and it’s possible he ends up being the best RB out of this year’s draft class once it’s all said and done.