After starting the season as a healthy scratch, rookie tight end Oronde Gadsden II has been one of the Los Angeles Chargers' most pleasant surprises this season.
Across his first nine NFL games, Gadsden amassed 37 receptions for 507 yards and two touchdowns. He quickly emerged as a much-needed explosive play threat for an offense that was stuck in the mud.
Yet over his last five games, Gadsden has garnered just 12 targets, collecting seven receptions for 102 yards in that span. In the Chargers' victory over the Dallas Cowboys, he received just one target.
What happened to Gadsden, and does Los Angeles have enough offensive juice to make room for him the rest of the season?
Oronde Gadsden II has been sidelined from the Chargers' passing offense
For the Chargers, Gadsden's breakout was a revelation. Although they have a solid pass-catching core of Keenan Allen, Ladd McConkey, and Quentin Johnston, the team desperately needed an additional threat they could turn to as an outlet in the middle of the field.
With Will Dissly and Tyler Conklin either being unavailable or strangely ineffective, Gadsden filled an immediate need. However, apart from the game against the Kansas City Chiefs, Justin Herbert has not turned to his breakout tight end in recent matchups.
Part of the equation has been the re-emergence of the team's passing offense, especially downfield. The offensive line has finally cobbled together enough protection to give Herbert sufficient time to even look at targets such as Johnston and McConkey.
Moreover, the emergence of Tre' Harris as a receiving threat has cut into Gadsden's targets as well. In their game on Sunday, Harris grabbed four receptions on five targets for 54 yards.
Yet that is not the complete answer. Against the Cowboys, even Dissly surpassed Gadsden in targets, grabbing three receptions for 28 yards. Dissly is a solid blocking tight end, and it would have been surprising to see him held out of action for the remainder of the season given the team's protection issues.
Therefore, in many ways, Gadsden's erasure is ironically a sign of better health in the team's offensive structure. They are going to a wide variety of targets on a game-to-game basis, meaning that more options are open to them now than there have been at many points this season.
Gadsden's dip in production, as painful as it may be to the many fans he earned with his early-season performances (and his fantasy managers), is a necessary symptom of the style of offense that Los Angeles continues to play.