Tag: Chargers fantasy football

Justin Herbert delivers high praise for Ladd McConkey: ‘It’s like he’s been a four or five-year vet’

Fantasy football owners, make sure to have Ladd McConkey on your radar.

Justin Herbert gave some praise to rookie Ladd McConkey in his first media availability of the offseason. Asked about the former Georgia product, Herbert had this to say:

He’s just picked up the offense so easily. It’s like he’s been a four or five-year vet. He understands the game, he understands leverage. He’s a smart player, he’s very athletic. He can beat man coverage, find the soft spot in zones.

Based on reporting from The Athletic’s Daniel Popper from both OTAs and minicamp, Herbert has built quite the rapport with McConkey. He’s done most of his work from the slot. On the first day of minicamp, he caught four passes from Herbert. That included a critical third down conversion where he beat Ja’Sir Taylor, per Popper.

McConkey’s footwork was always top-notch coming out of this year’s draft class, despite some questions about his size and functional strength. Going against his first NFL competition will certainly provide some natural obstacles to deal with. But it’s a positive sign that he has an in-depth understanding of leverage already in addition to building his connection with Herbert.

McConkey has yet to sign his rookie contract formally, but there should be an expectation that gets done between now and training camp.

Fantasy football: Chargers WR Quentin Johnston tabbed as ‘sleeper to consider for 2023 season’

Quentin Johnston provides great value.

With the 2023 NFL regular season just weeks away, football fans are working hard to get their fantasy football teams together.

While Vikings’ Justin Jefferson, 49ers’ Christian McCaffrey, Bengals’ Jamarr Chase and Chargers’ Austin Ekeler headline a crop of the top players, the depth players are what make a championship team.

That is why not the most well-known or highly regarded yet still talented players in fantasy are just as imperative. That includes rookie wide receiver Quentin Johnston.

Johnston was among The 33rd Team’s 11 sleepers to consider for the upcoming season.

Johnston is also a rookie wide receiver with Round 1 draft capital, which, historically, is an archetype that serves fantasy managers well.

Johnston was drafted to provide a spark to Los Angeles’ offense as he has the speed and explosiveness to stretch the field, outpace defenders in the open field, and has the size to stack defensive backs.

Johnston needs to clean up the dropped passes that have lingered from his college playing days.

Nonetheless, Kellen Moore will design looks for Justin Herbert to get Johnston the ball in space. He averaged 8.9 yards after the catch in 2022 (10th in FBS), and his 18 forced missed tackles ranked eighth this season among receivers in the Power 5 conferences. Hello, big plays.

And even with Keenan Allen, Mike Williams and Joshua Palmer in front of him on the depth chart, Johnston still presents an intriguing option to get playing time early on, with room to grow into a sizable role if Allen or Williams were to go down with an injury.

I’m projecting Johnston to finish with 45-50 receptions for 650-700 yards and 4-6 touchdowns.

Chargers HC Brandon Staley gives injury updates on Isaiah Spiller, Josh Palmer

Chargers HC Brandon Staley gave updates on RB Isaiah Spiller and WR Joshua Palmer before Monday’s practice.

Chargers running back Isaiah Spiller left last Saturday’s preseason game against the Cowboys with an ankle injury in the second half.

Head coach Brandon Staley gave an update on Spiller on Monday, adding that he is considered week-to-week. He will miss the preseason finale against the Saints this Friday and could miss the season opener against the Raiders.

Before suffering the injury, Spiller was in competition for the second running back spot with Joshua Kelley and Larry Rountree. With him potentially being unavailable for Week 1, it’s likely Los Angeles will carry four backs on the 53-man roster.

In addition to Spiller, wide receiver Joshua Palmer is in concussion protocol coming out of the game against Dallas.

Palmer, the summer standout, had an eyebrow-raising performance with three catches on four targets for 75 yards and a touchdown.

We will update on the statuses of Spiller and Palmer once further information is released.

Projecting realistic stat line for Chargers RB Austin Ekeler

Breaking down how Chargers running back Austin Ekeler might do in the 2022 season.

After a hamstring injury sidelined him for six games in 2020, Chargers running back Austin Ekeler rebounded in a big way with a productive season that saw him set several personal bests.

Ekeler became a worthy Robin to Justin Herbert’s Batman. He led the backfield with 911 yards on the ground while punching in 12 scores, the latter of which was good enough for fifth among league rushers. He added 70 catches through the air, racking up 647 yards and eight more scores, which returned him to fantasy football glory. Most importantly, Ekeler remained healthy to play an entire 16-game slate, hit his career-best in rushing yards, and be crowned the league’s king for total touchdowns.

Even with the arrival of fourth-round pick Isaiah Spiller, Ekeler is the primary safety blanket for Herbert and a valuable weapon that will be asked to produce in various creative fashions. 

So what can Chargers fans expect Ekeler’s next season to look like?

Well, expect the rushing touchdowns to enjoy a bit of positive regression. With Spiller in the fold, Ekeler’s red-zone carries will likely decrease. If Spiller cuts into Ekeler’s early-down role, then it would certainly have an effect on the rushing numbers. With his longest rush going for 28 yards last season, Ekeler will need a fair amount of handoff volume to reach 1,000 yards on the ground.

But since Los Angeles added no notable receivers outside of retaining Mike Williams, Ekeler’s high-volume receiving duties are expected to be preserved. That means a lot of third-down work, where Ekeler will extend routes into the flat and test his quickness against linebackers that will look to eliminate him from the passing game. It’s a safe bet to assume offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi will develop plenty of scripted motion and predetermined reads to get the ball in Ekeler’s hands and let him make a play.

Ekeler came seven yards short of a 1,000-yard receiving season two years ago. A Melvin Gordon holdout allowed him to gobble up the majority of backfield duties. According to Player Profiler, Ekeler caught 92 of his 108 targets and averaged 10.8 yards per catch (first in the league). He ran 265 routes on 44.4% of the team’s passing plays.

Let’s compare that to his latest campaign. Ekeler ran more routes (393) on more plays (61.6%) than in 2019. He was targeted the most out of any running back in the NFL, and he racked up most receiving yards, too. Although his receptions “dipped” to 70, that mark still ranked second among running backs. 

The sixth-year back is being deployed more, which is allowing the Chargers to break open defenses and spread the ball around. While Ekeler is being force-fed less than his 2019 breakout, his numbers in the passing game are still grand enough to rank in the upper echelon of dynamic running backs. It helps when Ekeler is astoundingly good at creating for himself – he created 940 yards after evading the first tackle attempt.

Ekeler’s rushing totals should decrease a bit when factoring in Spiller’s gradual emergence. In turn, this may lead to him running over 400 routes and seeing more opportunities as a receiver. He might not score 20 touchdowns again, but Ekeler’s ability to succeed in virtually any role will be a nagging headache for defenses to keep track of.

A rushing line of 200 carries, 850 yards, and eight touchdowns seems reasonable. As a receiver, seeing Ekeler hit the century mark is not a total fantasy, but he will likely fall in between that and his 2021 season. Tab him for around 80 catches, 750 yards, and seven touchdowns.

Projecting realistic stat line for Chargers rookie RB Isaiah Spiller

Breaking down how Chargers running back Isaiah Spiller might do in his rookie season.

The Chargers have developed a type of running back over the last few seasons. Starting with Justin Jackson in 2018, the team has drafted four running backs in the last five seasons. All have been Day 3 picks, all have been between the tackles players, and thus far, none have worked out.

Jackson was probably the best of the group, with a career yards per carry average right at 5. The story with him was always injuries: the former 7th rounder missed more than a third of Chargers games in four seasons. It’s the main reason he wasn’t re-signed this offseason and why he remains a free agent with training camp mere weeks away.

In 2020, Los Angeles knew that they couldn’t rely on Jackson for a full season. They looked down the street, selected UCLA rusher Joshua Kelley in the 4th round, and hoped he would be able to wean some carries from Jackson and Austin Ekeler. To date, Kelley has averaged 3.2 yards per carry and found the end zone just twice. Fumbles and missed blocking assignments on special teams hurt his chances of earning more time.

And so, last season, the Chargers swung again. This time, it was sixth-rounder Larry Rountree III from Missouri, a bruiser if there ever was one. Rountree was going to compete for short yardage carries and take some of the harder hits to keep Ekeler fresh. And then, he averaged 2.4 yards per carry, failing to crack 100 yards on the season despite 36 attempts. His vision looked subpar, he struggled to gain tough yards despite a 220-pound frame, and he wasn’t much better on special teams than Kelley.

All that is how we ended up here. For the fourth time in five years, the Chargers selected a running back in the 4th round or later. For the fourth time in five years, they took a bruising interior runner with questionable third-down value. But something is different about this time because this time, the back the Chargers took was billed as among the best at his position as recently as days before the actual draft.

Texas A&M’s Isaiah Spiller was a hot name for much of the draft cycle last season. No matter where you looked, Spiller, Breece Hall, and Kenneth Walker III were named the top three backs. The question was whether Spiller would be chosen above his classmates, not if he’d make it to Day 3. And yet, the Chargers scooped him up two full rounds after Hall and Walker went to the Jets and Seahawks, respectively.

So, Spiller likely has a chip on his shoulder, as well as a wide-open path to playing time as the thunder to Austin Ekeler’s lightning. What should we expect from the rookie?

Perhaps the easiest place to start would be 2018, back when the Chargers had a running back tandem of Ekeler and 2015 first-round pick Melvin Gordon. That season, Gordon took 175 carries for 885 yards in 12 games, while Ekeler had 106 attempts for 554 yards. Both players eclipsed 400 receiving yards as well. With Ekeler now in the 1A role, let’s assume he takes that heavier load of 175-ish carries, down from 206 last season. That leaves 100-ish carries for Spiller, which could result in a similar line as 2021 rookie Khalil Herbert, who took 103 carries for 433 yards and 2 TDs behind David Montgomery in Chicago.

ESPN projects Spiller for 127 carries for 546 yards and 4 TDs, plus 18 catches for another 131 yards and 1 additional TD. FantasyPros, similarly, has Spiller at 124 carries for 536 yards and four scores, with 18 receptions for 132 yards and 1 TD.

That’s a stat line resembling Rhamondre Stevenson, the Patriots rookie who took 133 carries for 606 yards and 5 TDs in 12 games. That was good for the fifth-best total amongst rookies last season, mostly behind players who immediately became their team’s featured back. Such a ranking is about the range I expect Spiller to land in as well, considering Hall, Walker, Dameon Pierce, and Tyler Allgeier could all end up RB1 for their respective teams.

It’s also worth noting that both ESPN and FantasyPros have Spiller at more than 4 yards a carry, which would be a tremendous upgrade over Rountree’s 2.4 and Kelley’s 3.1 from 2021. However, Justin Jackson did average 5.4 in relief duty behind Ekeler, albeit over a smaller sample size of just 68 carries.

If Spiller gets 125 carries, is it unreasonable to expect him to get to 600 yards, as Stevenson did? Such a yardage total would be a 4.8 per carry average, which would be better than Stevenson and better than any season Ekeler has posted since 2018. However, there’s precedent to show it’s possible, and the Chargers’ offensive line has improved by adding Zion Johnson this offseason. A 125-carry workload also suggests success in short-yardage situations, so I’d imagine six TDs would be in reach for Spiller.

125 carries for 600 yards and six TDs would undoubtedly be a successful season for Spiller, but it would also be far and away the best season by a non-Ekeler Chargers back since Gordon’s 8-touchdown 2019 campaign. It also assumes a dip in Ekeler’s workload, but remember that the veteran said in OTAs that he wants someone to come to earn reps from him.

We’ll have to wait and see how Spiller produces in 2022, but there’s certainly reason to be optimistic.

Chargers WR Mike Williams’ surge continues

Chargers WR Mike Williams is looking to make himself some money this offseason.

Heading into the season, you would not have said that wide receiver Mike Williams would be the team’s most productive pass-catcher.

Through the first two games, that is the direction that it is headed.

After an eye-popping season opening performance against Washington in his new role as the ‘X’ receiver, Williams followed that up with another productive day in last Sunday’s loss to the Cowboys.

Leading the team in targets with 10, Williams amassed seven catches for 91 yards and a touchdown.

After Week 2, Williams is now up to 15 receptions for 173 yards and two scores on 22 targets, which is second-most among receivers in this league and one more than Keenan Allen.

In Joe Lombardi’s system, Williams has aligned outside 98 times and 17 inside the slot, and his ran 83 routes on 103 of quarterback Justin Herbert’s dropbacks.

As opposed to being a jump ball specialist down the field, like he was the last four years, Williams has made the majority of his money in the short and intermediate levels of the field.

Instead of being restricted to primarily vertical routes, Williams has proved that he can handle more diverse patterns while still managing to use his size, quick reflexes, body control and ball skills to make plays look routine.

If he keeps this up and manages to stay healthy, Williams is going to make himself a lot of money this offseason.

Chargers Fantasy Football Week 1: Start ’em or sit ’em

Highlighting the Chargers players that you should start or keep on the bench in the season opener against Washington.

We are officially in the midst of the 2021 regular season, with the majority of the games ensuing tomorrow, which also means that fantasy football matchups will largely be determined then.

As owners are finalizing their rosters, join me as I break down the Chargers that you should start and sit to reclaim a title or dethrone last year’s champion.

QB Justin Herbert — Sit

Look, this does not mean you should drop Herbert in favor of another player. Frankly, I believe he is capable of finishing as a top-5 QB by the end of the season. But in the first game, don’t expect a lot of points from the sophomore signal-caller. Facing a fearsome front and a stout secondary that allowed the fifth-fewest points to quarterbacks last season, Herbert could be kept to one of his most quiet performances. Again, only bench him if you have another quarterback on your roster who has more of a favorable matchup.

RB Austin Ekeler — Start

While Ekeler is listed as questionable, head coach Brandon Staley expects him to play, adding that “he looked good” at practice. In this new offense under Joe Lombardi, Ekeler’s workload should be hefty considering Alvin Kamara was one of the most productive backs during their time with the Saints. Despite facing one of the best defenses, Washington still allowed 114.5 rushing yards per game last season. Ekeler’s great ability to make an impact in the passing game should also be put to use.

WR Mike Williams — Sit

The Chargers are excited for the potential of Williams in Lombardi’s offense and while he could have a breakout season, the start of that will unlikely come this weekend. Washington gave up 201.9 passing yards last season and with him expected to draw a tough matchup in cornerback William Jackson, it could be hard for Williams to rack up points. In addition, with Herbert likely to face a good chunk of pressure, the plays down the field where Williams makes his money could be kept to a minimum.

TE Jared Cook — Start

Cook was signed to replace Hunter Henry and because of his familiarity with Lombardi’s offense, which he was quite productive in. In two seasons with New Orleans, Cook had 80 catches for 1,209 yards and 16 touchdowns. Not only did Herbert and Cook develop a strong connection during the summer, the sophomore could look to make a smooth transition in a new system by heavily relying on someone who’s well-versed in it. If there’s a prediction that I’m making, it’s that Cook will lead the team in targets in Week 1.

Chargers defense — Start

Even with Washington adding Ryan Fitzpatrick coupled with the weapons around him, there’s reason to believe why the unit could struggle. Head coach Brandon Staley oversaw the Rams’ defense that ranked No. 1 in both yards and points last season. His emphasis on bringing heat from as many places and coverage disguise in attempt to create uncertainty for quarterback — combined with playmakers led by Derwin James, Joey Bosa, Linval Joseph, Kenneth Murray, Michael Davis, Chris Harris Jr. and rookie Asante Samuel Jr. — could force Fitzpatrick into some mistakes.

Chargers RB Justin Jackson ‘a full go’ to start the season

Chargers running back Justin Jackson has been proven to be a weapon out of the backfield when healthy.

Chargers running back Justin Jackson is expected to be on the field this Sunday for the regular-season opener against the Football Team.

At media availability on Wednesday, head coach Brandon Staley said that Jackson is a “full go,” adding that he is an asset to the offense.

Jackson missed nearly the entire preseason with a groin injury.

Entering the final year of his contract, Jackson has struggled to stay healthy, only managing to play in 29 out of 48 regular season games.

When he’s been available, Jackson has proven to be a threat out of the backfield, averaging 4.8 yards per carry.

Jackson is expected to resume his role as the primary backup to Austin Ekeler.

The coaching staff will be holding hope that he can stay injury-free. If so, he’s an ideal compliment to Ekeler who can impact the game in both facets.

If not, the team will then turn to Joshua Kelley and Larry Rountree, who are likely to be a short-yardage specialists and special teamers to start the season.

Chargers RB Austin Ekeler could help you win your 2021 fantasy football league

Chargers RB Austin Ekeler is an elite fantasy football asset.

The Chargers offseason brought with it a coaching staff, which could bring a positive impact to those who are playing fantasy football this year.

Among the players who should have owners licking their chops is running back Austin Ekeler.

Ekeler enters his fifth season with new offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi calling the shots. One thing about Lombardi is that he has historically gotten his running backs involved more than most coaches in the league.

During his time with the Saints, Lombardi utilized backs like Reggie Bush and Darren Sproles, but the most notable was Alvin Kamara, who recorded at least 1,500 yards from scrimmage and 13 touchdowns three times in his first four seasons.

It just so happens that Ekeler has a very similar skill-set to Kamara, considering the two are ultra-refined runners and lethal pass-catchers.

In each of his seasons, Ekeler has put up big numbers. He amassed 933 yards from scrimmage while missing six games during the 2020 season, but had 1,550 during an injury-free 2019 campaign.

Ekeler shouldn’t have to worry about that many touches being taken because Justin Jackson, Joshua Kelley or Larry Rountree III have yet to establish themselves as candidates to receive bigger roles.

In addition, Ekeler will be playing behind the best offensive line he’s had since coming into the league.

Heading into the new season, should he stay healthy, Ekeler could be looking at his best campaign to date.

If I’m drafting, the Ekeler is going to be selected with my late first-round, early second-round selection in both standard and points per receptions (PPR) formats, and I am confident that he can finish as a top-5 running back by season’s end.

Draft Ekeler and reap the reward.

Projection: 815 Rush Yds | 4 Rush Tds | 81 Rec | 801 Rec Yds | 7 Rec Tds

Which Chargers offensive player will benefit most from new coaches?

Identifying the Chargers player that should be in for a big year under OC Joe Lombardi.

For many, a new coaching staff brings a new opportunity to provide a first impression. For some, it’s a chance to be used properly. For others, it could be a chance to have the best coach in your career.

For the Chargers, there’s a handful of players that should benefit from first-year head coach Brandon Staley and the offensive staff that he brought in, but to me, there is one in particular that stands out.

Wide receiver Mike Williams, who is entering the final year of his contract, is in a prime position to have his best season to date under offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi.

Williams will be playing the ‘X’ receiver, which is the same role that was held by one of the league’s best wideouts, Saints’ Michael Thomas, who has put up record-setting receiving numbers dating back to 2018.

While Williams will have to fend off other play-makers for targets like Keenan Allen, Austin Ekeler, Jared Cook, Tyron Johnson, among others, the nature of the offense naturally favors the role he will be playing.

“As much as this offense will resemble New Orleans, he plays the ‘X’ and the ball has always kind of found the ‘X’ receiver in this offense,” Lombardi said about Williams.

Williams has been known for his big-play ability down the field, whereas Thomas did the majority of his work in the short to intermediate parts of the field. How Williams will be utilized in that role will be an intriguing storyline at training camp.

Thomas has averaged a little over 150 targets per season during his first four healthy campaigns, and Williams has averaged 80 targets the last three seasons. If Williams can surpass over 100 targets, I believe he could be due for over 70 catches for 1,200 yards and 8-10 touchdowns.

“I see a big role for him. If I were a betting man, I’d bet on nice numbers coming from him on the stat sheet,” Lombardi said.

Should he stay healthy and have a big year, Williams could garner a nice-looking contract extension next offseason, whether that be with Los Angeles or somewhere else.