Heading into last season, the Dallas Cowboys had the quintessential ambiguous backfield. Fantasy football managers really had no idea how the workload would shake out. As it turns out, there was no committee.
It was the Javonte Williams show, and his performance earned him a contract extension. Are fantasy managers willing to do the same and buy Williams in 2026 at an increased price?
Should You Draft Cowboys RB Javonte Williams in Fantasy Football?
It doesn’t get much better than 2025 Williams. A guy who was largely an afterthought in fantasy drafts — a late-round dart throw — went on to finish as a fantasy RB1.
Williams was given the first shot at leading the Cowboys’ backfield with no guarantee of workload. His performance earned him the feature-back role.
The former Bronco had one of the best roles in the NFL. He commanded a 69% opportunity share, carrying the ball 252 times for 1,202 yards and scoring a total of 13 touchdowns. Williams averaged a career-best 15.2 fantasy points per game.
The volume was great, and it projects to be pretty great once again. And, as we know, volume is king in fantasy football. But… there are concerns.
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Despite the contract extension, Williams isn’t exactly an established guy who has no risk of losing opportunity. If he doesn’t play well, the Cowboys will turn to Malik Davis or perhaps Jaydon Blue to see if either can provide a spark. Williams should have a pretty sizable leash, but he’s not invincible. That means he needs to continue to perform to maintain his valuable fantasy role.
There is one major wart on Williams’ profile, and it’s his receiving ability. Williams earned just an 8.7% target share last season. When Dak Prescott did throw him the ball, it didn’t go well. Williams’ 0.48 yards per route run ranked 30th among qualified running backs. Historically, running backs who average below 1.0 yards per route run frequently fail to meet ADP expectations the following season. It’s a major red flag.
Williams’ Redraft Fantasy Football Value
Before drafting Williams, ask yourself why you want to draft him. What’s the main reason? If the answer is purely volume, then you should reconsider.
The running back dead zone isn’t really a thing anymore. But the reason it ever existed in the first place was that it was a pocket in drafts where fantasy managers would take running backs who weren’t particularly talented, but projected for heavy volume, usually based on the very dangerous premise of, “Well, who else is going to touch the ball?”
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Williams is better than the Mike Davises and Zamir Whites of the world, but he wasn’t really a special player last season. Nothing about his performance suggests the Cowboys need to feature him. He was merely the best option they had. As long as that remains the case, he’ll be fine. But he didn’t quite do enough to leave us confident it will.
Williams wasn’t particularly effective on a per-touch basis, averaging just 4.7 yards. His yards created per touch and evaded tackles per touch rate both ranked outside the top 30. While efficiency tends to be a bit noisy and more dependent on the offensive environment, there’s no denying that Williams’ fantasy production outran his actual performance.
As is often the case in modern fantasy football, though, the fantasy community is wise to this. 5-10 years ago, Williams would be going at the 1/2 turn. Instead, he’s the RB16, which is a much more palatable price tag.
We have Williams at RB14 in our consensus rankings, but I have him down at RB19. I do believe in the Cowboys’ offense, which gives Williams a safe floor. However, it’s very difficult to see him outperforming his ADP expectation by a meaningful amount. What he did last season feels like a best-case scenario. A repeat of last year would make him a good pick at cost, but he goes in a range where the wide receivers are much more appealing. As a result, I doubt I will have much Williams in 2026.
Williams’ Dynasty Fantasy Football Value
Guys like Williams are the most difficult to evaluate from a dynasty standpoint. If you take Williams in redraft and he flops, you can overcome it. If you buy Williams in dynasty and he flops, there’s a very real chance he goes from solid RB2 to completely worthless. That’s unlikely to happen, but it’s within his range of outcomes. Are we sure the Cowboys are committed to him as their RB of the future? I’m not.
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Williams is down at RB21 in our consensus dynasty rankings and even that feels dicey. He’s only 26 years old, but he’s been in the league for five years and was nothing more than a middling low RB2/RB3 for the first four of them. Currently, last year looks like the outlier. But it could be the start of a trend.
Given the absence of a strong feeling on Williams and the wide range of long-term outcomes, he’s the type of player you want to leverage for value, whatever that may be. If you can trade him for more than he’s worth, do that. If you can buy him for less than he’s worth, do that.
