The Chiefs at their best is a picture that includes running back Damien Williams
Twenty-two minutes after a fifth straight win that felt over by halftime and without any late-game thrill worthy of its primetime slot, Chiefs running back Damien Williams stood by his locker talking toward no one in particular. Talking, basically, to anyone who would listen.
The Chiefs had departed the field and arrived in the visiting room in a manner resembling more a teacher’s instructions for a single-file line than any sort of celebration of a 26-3 victory against the Bears here in Chicago.
Williams represented something of an exception. Visibly energized. Laughing. Talking.
At one point, a towel drying the beads from his face, he responded to a question that had not yet been asked.
“Fresh, man,” he said. “I feel fresh.”
In his first appearance after a three-game absence — 34 days since he injured his ribs in Mexico City, to be exact — Williams led the Chiefs with 65 rushing yards. He added three catches for 27 yards and a touchdown.
He out-gained the remainder of the backfield combined, and although he didn’t start, by the second half he returned to the place the Chiefs had envisioned all along — that of their lead back.
“I’ve been able to get stronger with the time off that I had, trying to get right as far as my core, upper body and lower body,” Williams said. “I feel a lot healthier than I did two weeks ago.”
The Chiefs won each of the past three games Williams missed. So in the argument they don’t need him to win, well, the evidence is there.
But there’s also this: There is no one else like him on the roster. The Chiefs at their best — the level on which they pin their Super Bowl hopes — is a picture that brightens with Williams.
His speed. His weaponry in the passing game.
“He’s a great football player. The way he’s able to catch the ball out of the backfield, run the ball out of the backfield and also block, he can really do everything,” Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes said. “So, for us, to have him back is just another asset that we can throw on that offense that can help us spread the defense out and hopefully keep us rolling.”
The evidence is present there, too. In the form of just one play, even.
Midway through the third quarter Sunday night, Williams lined up alongside Mahomes on a third-and-long. Mahomes spotted the man-to-man coverage immediately, his eyes darting to Williams directly after the snap. As an ensuing pass reached him, Williams remained six yards from the first-down marker.
His speed took over from there. Williams beat linebacker Nick Kwiatkoski to the sideline and skated into the end zone. The lead ballooned back to three scores.
“Pat does what he does. All I could do was catch the ball and get in the end zone,” Williams said. “He saw (the Bears were) in man coverage. He trusted me to beat my defender, and that’s what I did.”
Regaining rhythm within the running game will require more time, Williams acknowledged. Chiefs coach Andy Reid commented that Williams “did a nice job,” yet “all kinds of room for improvement. He knows that.”
But in his first game in more than a month, Williams totaled more rushing yards than any Chiefs running back since he had 77 against Tennessee.
That game was played on Nov. 10.
“It means a lot being able to come out here and compete with my guys,” Williams said. “Sitting back, trying to get healthy, watching them roll over guys. It’s just something special coming out here and getting after it.”