LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The Las Vegas Raiders have added another running back to the roster.
On Friday, the Silver And Black announced they have signed free agent Damien Williams.
The San Diego native has appeared in 98 NFL games with 336 carries for 1,397 yards with 14 touchdowns as well as 154 receptions for 1,209 yards and 11 touchdowns. Williams has played for several teams including the Miami Dolphins, Kansas City Chiefs, Chicago Bears, and the Atlanta Falcons.
"Damien's a guy we worked out earlier in training camp who was in shape. He's had a productive career. He's a good football players. He's smart. He's touch. We were interested in him, honestly, before that," Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels said during a press conference on Friday. "When you start to get a little low at a number here and you've got to play a game ... just trying to make sure that at each spot we can, we're kind of healthy, as healthy as we can be going into this stretch of days, which is going to be an important one."
Williams will join Zamir White, Ameer Abdullah and Brandon Bolden on the Raiders' running back depth chart.
This comes as the Silver And Black are still in the middle of a contract dispute with running back Josh Jacobs. He hasn't signed his franchise tender after not agreeing to a long-term deal with the team. As of Friday, Jacobs still hasn't shown up at training camp.
"We like to run the ball. You got to have somebody back there that's a dog if you're going to give it to them over 300 times. Not having him right now is obviously something that I'm not happy with but we've got to keep it going as a team until we figure out that piece," said wide receive Davante Adams. "It's tough not having him."
RELATED LINK: Running back Josh Jacobs misses first day of Las Vegas Raiders training camp
The Raiders placed the franchise tag on Jacobs on March 6, which meant if he did return to the team, he would have played on a $10.1 million deal this season.
"The contract stuff, those are really tough situations because as much as it's about business, there's a personal element that gets involved," Raiders General Manager Dave Ziegler said last week. "At the end of the day, in that situation, we weren't able to find enough common ground before that deadline the league puts in place. Josh had one of his best seasons in his career in Josh McDaniels' offense. What I'd like to see, what we'd like to see if Josh to have another great year in this offense that he was really productive in and hope to find more common ground once we're able to do that."
Last season, Jacobs led the National Football League with 1,653 rushing yards and named a first-team All-Pro. He also rushed for 12 touchdowns and caught 53 passes for 400 yards.
The Raiders first pre-season game is at Allegiant on Sunday as they get ready to take on the San Francisco 49ers. Kick-off is at 1 p.m.
