After four seasons with the Broncos, Javonte Williams signed with the Dallas Cowboys ahead of the 2025 season with the intent to remind the NFL of what he was capable of when fully healthy.
It worked, and the team has elected to bring him back on a three-year deal. Where does his fantasy football stock now sit for 2026 and beyond?
Fantasy Football Value Check: Javonte Williams
Williams was a second-round pick by the Denver Broncos in 2021, and he looked like the answer to their backfield questions for a long time during his impressive rookie season (1,219 scrimmage yards and 7 touchdowns). We saw explosive runs and a versatile skill set: He did everything we could have realistically asked of him.
A multi-ligament tear in his knee during the first month of 2022, however, ended his sophomore season before it had a real chance to get going.
Modern medicine is great and got him back on the field, but a return to action doesn’t mean a return to previous production patterns. Williams averaged under 4.0 yards per carry in each of the next two seasons, not once ripping off a 25-yard run.
The Broncos made the decision that most teams would have at that point and didn’t stand in his way from hitting free agency. Enter Dallas, a team that used Rico Dowdle as a bandage in 2024 as they were moving on from the Ezekiel Elliott era.
Dallas and free-agent-to-be RB Javonte Williams reached agreement on a three-year contract that includes $16 million in guaranteed money.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) February 21, 2026
Rookie Jaydon Blue was projected to be in the mix, but the Cowboys never gave him much of a chance. With Williams scoring in four of his first five games with the team, he did his part in making sure there wasn’t the urge to deploy a committee.
Fantasy football managers racked up victories on the back of their ninth-round pick turned lineup lock. He never really broke the slate, but he rarely made you regret starting him and, given what you spent on him, that’s an elite return on investment.
Those three all finished around Williams in terms of PPG, and his profile was as stable as any of them. For the fantasy season (Weeks 1-17), he scored more PPR points than Brown six times, Henry seven times, and Barkley nine times.
He was a league winner last season — there are no two ways about it. The aforementioned consistency on top of the draft-day value allowed you to manage with aggression and build a super team.
The math will be different in 2026 because the ADP is going to react to his big 2025 campaign, but that doesn’t make Williams a fade. It’s not hard to see him flirting with 1,400 total yards and another 12-14 touchdowns, production that would land him as an RB1 in all formats.
Currently, I have Williams ranked as my RB13 in redraft formats and RB15 in dynasty. These marks are obviously fluid with plenty of movement still expected at the position, but I’d rather sign up for Williams over the course of this new deal than RBs at risk of having the wheels fall off over that stretch, like Derrick Henry or Josh Jacobs.
Personally, I think Breece Hall is the superior talent and more likely than not to land on an offense in the same range as the Cowboys. Thus, I have him ranked ahead of Williams across the board. That said, they share a tier, and if you want to take the bird in the hand that is Dallas’ RB1 — given that we saw them maximize his abilities in 2025 — I wouldn’t call you crazy.