Published: Saturday, Nov. 22, 2008 / Updated: Monday, Nov. 24, 2008 09:12 AM

Williams breaking stereotypes for backs

CHARLOTTE -- He's been fighting the stereotype for years, generally in vain.

Because Carolina Panthers running back DeAngelo Williams is little, he must be a "scat-back," must be an "outside runner," or worse yet, a "change-of-pace guy."

It's obviously not possible that the 5-foot-9, 217-pounder can ram it up inside the way the Panthers like to, right?

Wrong.

"I don't worry about it," Williams said last week. "I just try to get the job done. If they ask me to go inside or outside, it's part of the job description of a tailback, anyway. It doesn't really matter to me."

Whether or not the labels stick, the one thing that matters is the bottom line. Williams is running as well right now as anyone who's played for the Panthers not named Stephen Davis. While you'd be hard-pressed to find two backs who look more different, their results are amazingly similar.

In fact, if Williams has another good game today at Atlanta, he'll pass Davis to become the franchise's third all-time rusher, in just his 13th start.

Right now, he's fifth on the still-thin list, with 2,000 yards even. He's about to pass Fred Lane (2,001) and Davis (2,085) on the career chart, and has an outside chance at collecting Tshimanga Biakabutuka (2,530) for second if he stays hot all year. DeShaun Foster (3,336) is the all-time leader in Charlotte.

Williams is doing it with a style that shows he can be an all-around back, not just one of those poor saps who gets a tag early in his career and then can't shake it.

If he's sensitive about it, it's hard to tell, though there must be a touch of self-consciousness there. But what he's doing on the field is convincing everyone he can play the big boys' game as well.

"I mean, we mess with him -- because he is small," fullback Brad Hoover said with a laugh when asked about Williams. "But he doesn't run like that. He's got a lot of speed, but the main thing is he's able to break a lot of tackles and finish runs.

"Not only that, I just think he's got some confidence. He's seeing the holes I think better than he's ever seen in the past. His work ethic's picked up that much more. Not that he hasn't worked hard before, but just the fact he's making it a point this is how it's going to be and this is how he wants it to be."

Panthers quarterback Jake Delhomme grins when asked about the gregarious Williams, their 2006 first-rounder. Like most, he knows that his starting running back is fighting stereotypes as much as tacklers, while making both miss.

"So many people, you get labeled a power back or whatever," Delhomme said. "He's a very strong runner, he's not just a slasher. He's not just an open-field guy."

Like Hoover, Delhomme sees a more mature Williams this season, a guy who's grown into his role and maintained the kind of explosive speed he displayed in college. He left Memphis as the NCAA's all-time leader in all-purpose yards.

"I think the biggest thing, it's evident at practice. We've saw it all year long, you kind of learn how to become a pro," Delhomme said. "How to practice, how to finish at practice; you run a little more, especially a running back."

But the amazing part about Williams might be how quickly he's piling up the numbers.

He's tied with Foster, Biakabutuka, Davis and Anthony Johnson with seven 100-yard games, and he's done it in just 12 starts. The other four all have at least 20 starts, and Foster needed 40 to get there. That makes you wonder a bit why it took Williams so long to get his chance, but it also points to the automatic lead Williams had coming into this season. Fox prefers a veteran if all things are equal, but that might have only bought Williams a few weeks if that's all there was in his favor.

Once the Panthers drafted Jonathan Stewart in the first round this year, there were many assumptions that the shorter Davis-clone from Oregon would inherit the job quickly. After all, he looks more like a power runner, so he must be better there. Right?

So even while Williams is lobbying for Stewart and himself to become known as "Smash and Dash" (implicating himself as the little quick one), he's actually running inside as effectively or more than the rookie. He's currently eighth in the league in rushing, and among rushers with at least 150 carries, only he and mammoth Brandon Jacobs of the New York Giants are averaging better than 5.0 yards per carry.

A lot of Williams' yards do come when he breaks outside, but he's proving that he can start inside, running behind the guards and following Hoover into traffic. The way he's handling himself among the big boys has earned him some admirers up front, too.

"Definitely," guard Travelle Wharton replied when asked if Williams was running tougher than he got credit for. "He runs with low pads at full speed. He'll bounce out of a jam inside because he runs so hard, and he'll break an arm-tackle. People do underestimate him. He runs real hard. He's still a small guy, but he's a guy that runs hard, with his pads down, and he's full speed.

"He's a guy who can grind it out and still hit the home runs. You can see him pull away from guys. That combination is always good for a guy like that."

Williams shrugs off questions about his ability to run with power, has for years. To him, it's simply part of the job, and now that he has a chance to show it, one he's flourishing at.

"I don't know if I'm better," he said. "Maybe they're just giving me more opportunities to run it inside than the first two years. It's something I feel like I've always been able to do. It's something that's required of a tailback, you can't tell a back just to stay outside. You have to make them respect the inside run game with that same tailback. I think they do a great job of mixing it up, both inside and outside, with both me and Stewart.

"That's a plus for our offense. If they stack the outside and leave the middle open, we'll gash them that way. It gives them a different look when they have to respect the inside and outside because it makes us three-dimensional."