RADIO
Is Blake Corum or Jarquez Hunter the RB2 behind Kyren Williams for the Los Angeles Rams? Dan Fornek examines the back-up running back situation in Los Angeles to find the RB2 that should be drafted in fantasy in 2025.
The fantasy season is almost upon us. In just two short weeks, we will be breaking down the action from Week 1 and making our first round of roster adjustments to try to win a fantasy championship. It is time to start examining the different depth charts for teams to determine which players are worth stashing on the bench or have weekly upside.
Some of the most impactful moves you can make in fantasy are identifying players who have major upside later in your draft to stash on the bench. Injuries have the ability to derail the fantasy season for any player. But at the same time, a starter who is injured opens up opportunities for backups to become fantasy relevant.
One backfield that could provide major fantasy production in the case of an injury is the Los Angeles Rams. We know that Kyren Williams is the unquestioned RB1 and will get a bulk of the backfield work, but what would happen if he went down? Which running back behind Williams is a target for fantasy? Read below to find out.
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The Case for Blake Corum
Many thought that the Rams' drafting Blake Corum in the third round of the 2024 NFL Draft signaled that the Rams were going to ease up on Kyren Williams in 2024. The rookie totaled 648 carries for 3,660 yards and 56 touchdowns while adding 51 receptions for 338 yards and three touchdowns over his final three seasons with Michigan.
Instead, Williams logged even more touches than in 2023 (350) than he did in 2022 (260). Corum, on the other hand, posted just 58 carries for 207 yards and seven receptions for 58 yards before suffering a season-ending injury in Week 18.
Corum enters 2025 healthy and ready to show that he can be a reliable part of the Rams offense once again in 2025. So far, he’s had a productive preseason, handling 13 carries for 54 yards and two touchdowns while adding one reception for four yards. Corum is showing the same vision and cutting ability that made him the focal point of Michigan's National Championship-winning offense in 2023.
Talked a lot about Rams RB Blake Corum's shiftiness this offseason. That's on display here. Really nice cutback on the second clip to get 11.
Also a shoutout to Wyatt Bowles (No. 60). He's quietly been playing well. pic.twitter.com/QtnQNHGzxy
— Blaine Grisak 💭 (@bgrisakTST) August 18, 2025
The second-year running back is probably the closest thing to a one-for-one replacement for Williams in the backfield. Both backs have similar size, speed, and rushing styles. Unfortunately, that makes him likely to be more of a handcuff than a player who has any weekly standalone value.
However, if Williams were to get injured after handling 600 touches through the first two weeks, Corum could be poised to have a big season.
The Case for Jarquez Hunter
The Rams have drafted a running back in eight straight draft classes, so we shouldn’t have been surprised when they invested a 2025 fourth-round pick in Auburn’s Jarquez Hunter. Unlike Corum and Williams, Hunter brings a bit of a different feel to the backfield.
Hunter carved out a consistent role in the backfield over his four seasons with Auburn. The running back was used as a complement to Tank Bigsby in his first two collegiate seasons (193 carries for 1,261 yards and 10 touchdowns with 29 receptions for 285 yards and three touchdowns) before taking over the lead back duties in his third season.
In his final two collegiate seasons, Hunter averaged 173.0 carries, 1,055 yards, and 7.5 touchdowns with 19.5 receptions, 136.5 receiving yards, and one receiving touchdown. He had at least 6.5 yards per touch in three of his four collegiate seasons. Hunter was fifth among all running backs in 10+ yard rushes in 2024 (42) and seventh in 15+ yard rushes (23). He was also third in the 2025 draft class in missed tackle rate (3.2).
The rookie solidified himself as a solid draft pick thanks to a strong performance at the NFL Combine. Hunter measured in at 5-foot-9, 204 pounds before running a 4.44 40-yard dash. That explosiveness is something that the Rams backfield has been missing with Kyren Williams over the last three seasons.
Jarquez Hunter - every rush/target - preseason game two https://t.co/VbM206iI6X pic.twitter.com/UbqHCrPPEi
— Jacob Gibbs (@jagibbs_23) August 17, 2025
So far this preseason, Hunter has done a good job when given opportunities, although he hasn’t done much to stand out. The rookie had 33 carries for 110 yards and added one reception for two yards in his three preseason games while running behind reserve offensive linemen. Hunter did start the final preseason game thanks to Williams and Corum not suiting up.
Hunter has earned praise from the Rams' offensive coordinator this summer thanks to his ability to add an explosive element to the backfield.
Who Should You Draft?
Everybody expected Corum to eat into Williams’s stranglehold on the backfield last season after the team used a third-round pick on the Michigan running back. Any fantasy manager who invested a draft pick into Corum will tell you firsthand that that didn’t come close to happening. Now we are trying to do the same thing again in 2025 with Corum and another rookie who was taken in a premium round.
That said, there is a reason why the situation with Hunter can be a bit different in 2025.
Last season, Kyren Williams was one of the least explosive running backs in the NFL. Among 46 qualified running backs, Williams was 21st in yards before contact (1.6) and 38th in yards after contact (2.5). He was also the RB24 in avoided tackle rate (20.9%) and the RB39 in explosive run rate (8.5%). By all accounts, Williams’s success as a fantasy running back (RB10, 17.0 PPG) was rooted in his volume.
Given the increase in rushing in the NFL today, teams are looking for ways to generate explosives through their rushing attack. By all accounts, Williams cannot provide that. However, Jarquez Hunter can. Hunter was one of the most explosive rushers in the NCAA last season. That hasn’t necessarily manifested in his preseason action, but it is also hard to consistently rip off chunk gains when you are running behind the second and third string offensive linemen.
Hunter has a chance to carve out a role (albeit a limited one) as a change of pace back to Williams as a rookie. That gives him value on a team that has a strong run-blocking offensive line and the pass-catching weapons to keep defenses honest. Assuming that Williams is able to stay healthy (not a given considering his volume the last two seasons), Hunter would be more likely to have a consistent weekly role in the offense.
That said, it is hard to imagine a scenario where Hunter completely takes control of the Rams' backfield, even with a Williams injury. Corum is an efficient rusher in his own right and can stylistically do a lot of the same things that Williams can. If there were an injury, this would likely turn into a split backfield between Hunter and the second-year back. In that scenario, both Hunter and Corum would have the ability to produce each week with a limited ceiling.
We know that the Rams want to run the football, especially with Matthew Stafford already fighting his way through a back injury. If there is a running back behind Williams that can make an impact in 2025, Jarquez Hunter is the better pick. However, it will likely take him time to earn enough of a role to even be considered a FLEX-level scorer in 2025.
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