After a brief offseason contract dispute with the team, Austin Ekeler remained with the team in 2023. His production, unfortunately, was not at the level of what he had produced in previous seasons. After a great performance against Miami in Week 1, Ekeler lost a step following an ankle injury that held him out until mid-October.
After returning against the Cowboys, Ekeler had just a hair over 500 yards on 163 carries for the rest of the season. He averaged 3.13 yards per rushing attempt in that span while simultaneously not having the same type of receiving production from previous seasons. In a contract year where Ekeler effectively bet on himself, it probably wasn’t what he wanted entering free agency.
The rest of the running back room didn’t carry their weight. Joshua Kelley had just 100 yards on 36 carries in the season’s last ten games. Isaiah Spiller had several healthy scratches and finished his second NFL season, averaging 2.6 yards per attempt.
Now, of course, the Chargers’ run scheme didn’t fail entirely because of the running backs themselves. The offensive line was pretty subpar at blocking, and Kellen Moore, unfortunately, couldn’t integrate his rushing attack like he did in Dallas. But Ekeler is approaching free agency as he will enter his age 29 season. And unlike when Melvin Gordon departed, the Chargers don’t have a solid answer or replacement on the roster.
In continuing our offseason position preview series, let’s turn to the running back room entering the offseason.
Under contract
RB Isaiah Spiller ($1.17M cap hit)
RB Elijah Dotson ($915K cap hit)
RB Jaret Patterson ($985K cap hit)
Spiller enters the 2024 offseason as the most experienced running back option currently on the roster. That probably won’t remain the case considering the new regime is likely to make the ground game a pivotal focus of this offseason. Free agency and the draft present a lot of great options for the Chargers to reinvent their running back room.
Unfortunately for Spiller, he just hasn’t been able to show why he’s deserving of consistent playing time in the league. Without being able to contribute on special teams or tote the rock efficiently from carry to carry, it’s hard to ascertain what his role is. Special teams coordinator Ryan Ficken favored Dotson’s placement on active rosters sometimes over Spiller due to that aforementioned kicking game value.
Dotson had a decent preseason last year. He was signed to a futures contract along with Patterson. Patterson spent most of 2023 on the teams’ practice squad.
By the time this retooling of the run game from the Jim Harbaugh-Greg Roman regime is complete for 2024, it wouldn’t surprise me if only one of these running backs listed under contract makes the team.
Pending free agents
RB Austin Ekeler
RB Joshua Kelley
Ekeler is the big question mark of the Chargers’ free agency. For what it’s worth, Jim Harbaugh was quoted as mentioning him as someone he’d love to have back with the team. Ekeler struggled in 2023 as he’s lost some of his juice, but he can still clearly contribute to a team next season. However, the Bolts’ running back is probably not going to get the payday he once envisioned.
PFF’s Brad Spielberger has him currently projected for a 2-year, $13.75M dollar contract in the open market. That would essentially be in line with the frame of his most recent contract’s average annual value structure.
Ultimately, I don’t see Joe Hortiz bringing Ekeler back to his current state for what it would cost. At his opening press conference last week, he was very clear about wanting to start a continuing cycle of obtaining consistent compensatory draft picks from year to year. Letting Ekeler walk is probably the move to get a decent day two or high day three draft pick in 2025.
Back in December, Ekeler stated that the firings of Tom Telesco and Brandon Staley would impact his free agency decision to some degree on the “God Bless Football” podcast from Meadowlark Media.
Kelley had 305 yards in the first half of 2023 but fell off decisively in the second frame of the season. He had just 100 yards over the last 10 weeks of the season. Currently, he is not listed in PFF’s top 150 free agents list. It’s a fairly stacked market. With a new regime in place, I wouldn’t bet on Kelley returning. Even if it were to be for a fairly low price.
2024 Outlook
The Chargers running back room might be the group on the roster that looks the most different at the beginning of the 2024 campaign. Harbaugh and Roman have a pretty distinct philosophy for what they like out of their ground game.
With Ekeler and Kelley unlikely to return, it really puts the Chargers in a position of needing to find talent on the open market in the draft. At a minimum, it seems like the team requires at least one running back each from free agency and the draft.
While a lot of the attention will go to the Derrick Henry and Saquon Barkley tier of running backs in this free agency cycle, I’d like to see the Chargers find some cheaper production for decent value. Gus Edwards strikes me as a name that could make a lot of sense given his lower projected financial value and familiarity with Roman.
In the draft, the Chargers will have their pick of the litter to upgrade their running back room.
