Javonte Williams Camp Update — August 23: Blue Runs for 75 While He Rests

Javonte Williams spent Saturday night on the sideline in Arizona, resting with the rest of the front-line offense in a 34 to 13 win, per the Associated Press — and watched Jaydon Blue, the second-year back the beat spent late July talking up, carry 15 times for 75 yards in his first extended live work of the summer. Malik Davis started the game at running back and caught a touchdown, per the team's coverage, and Phil Mafah returned from a chest contusion to score the final one, per Kurt Daniels at the team's website. None of that is first-team evidence — most starters on both sides sat — but it is the fullest picture yet of the room behind Williams, and the room looks livelier than it did a month ago.

Williams' own week produced exactly one flagged moment: he was involved in one of the fights that kept breaking out at Tuesday's joint practice with the Saints, an incident with tight end DJ Rogers, per Randy Gurzi at Cowboys On SI, on a day Brian Schottenheimer called "a little chippy," per Adam Schultz at Roundtable. No injury reporting, no role reporting, no practice charting of the backfield split.

Back in June we treated Williams' workload as the sturdy part of his profile — a three-year deal signed early, no back drafted behind him — while expecting last season's 11 touchdowns to come back to earth. 75 backup-game yards take no carries from him in September, and we will not pretend they do; they are, though, exactly how passing-down and change-of-pace roles get argued into existence, one August game at a time.

The checkable things: whether Williams plays a series in the preseason finale, and how Dallas structures the backfield behind him when rosters cut to 53 on Sunday, August 30. We'll check after cut day.

_Data via nflverse._