Nothing about the depth chart in Dallas has changed since last spring, but the install has. Williams spent camp getting schemed into screens, including one rep where Dak Prescott hit him in stride with a safety crashing unblocked off the edge, and that's not an accident. It's a fix. Williams ranked at the bottom of the league in yards per route run and EPA per target last season, and the Cowboys know a bell-cow back who can't threaten the middle of the field through the air caps his own ceiling and theirs.
What he already does well is the reason he got paid to stay: he ran through arm tackles and picked up the yardage nobody blocked for him, posting Dallas's best rushing season since Ezekiel Elliott's rushing title. He wins between the tackles on effort and contact balance, not burst, which is exactly why the coaching staff wants a passing-game counterweight next to him. Jaydon Blue has the speed Williams doesn't, and Dallas would rather deploy that speed than pretend Williams provides it himself.
The honest risk isn't health, it's touches. Blue has made himself hard to keep off the field this camp, and if the passing-down role slides from a change-of-pace wrinkle into a real split, Williams stops being a three-down back and starts being a between-the-20s grinder who watches third downs from the sideline. That's a real football outcome, not a hypothetical - it's already the direction camp reps are trending.
Josh Jacobs is the closer comparison than either of the receiving backs in this range: same body type, same grind-it-out identity, same team that just bet real money on him being the answer. The difference is that Green Bay never handed Jacobs a Blue-sized threat to his passing-down snaps, while Dallas is actively building one. Take Williams for what he already proved he can do - carry a real offense on early downs - and stay honest that the receiving upside the Cowboys are chasing this camp is unproven, not banked.
