Under new offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel, the Los Angeles Chargers have reason to be optimistic on the offensive side of the ball again.
After two years of stagnancy and unimaginativeness under Greg Roman, the offense not only has an innovative playcaller at its disposal, but it also has a full arsenal of weapons to implement that playcaller's vision. Charlie Kolar and David Njoku will each have major roles to play in multiple tight-end sets, and Ladd McConkey, Quentin Johnston, and Tre' Harris should each see ample opportunities to keep the offense flowing through the air.
But all of this hinges on the bellcow capabilities of second-year running back Omarion Hampton. If he's able to get consistent, down-to-down gains in McDaniel's outside-zone run attack, the offense will have a baseline of forward momentum it can establish.
With a reworked offensive line and a (hopefully) healthy Hampton, though, Chargers fans aren't the only ones who are optimistic. Douglas Clawson at CBS Sports, in his list of bold predictions for the 2026 season, listed Hampton as the potential rushing-yards leader for the league as a whole.
"Jim Harbaugh wants to run the ball. He doesn't want to see Justin Herbert lit up for 50-60 sacks again, and he has Joe Alt and Rashawn Slater back, plus additions of Jake Slaughter, Tyler Biadasz and Cole Strange to the interior of the offensive line. That means Harbaugh is going to ride 2025 first-round pick Omarion Hampton to a rushing title." Douglas Clawson, CBS Sports
Even if Hampton doesn't ultimately achieve Clawson's lofty prediction, Chargers fans would be wise to buckle up for a massive campaign out of last year's first-round selection.
Omarion Hampton may very well be in the top-10 running back conversation by the end of 2026
When the Chargers selected Hampton with the 22nd overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, the hope was that he would immediately help stabilize Roman's run-heavy scheme, taking on a major snap share and providing the Chargers with a consistency and explosiveness out of the backfield they had been sorely lacking.
Things, obviously, didn't go according to plan. Hampton was limited to just eight games during his rookie campaign with a foot injury, and even when he was healthy, the interior of the offensive line didn't have enough juice to unlock the run game in the way Roman intended.
Heading into his sophomore season, many of those projections remain the same—only under an entirely different scheme. The Miami Dolphins ran the ball at the tenth-highest rate in the NFL last season under McDaniel, and De'Von Achane (the Dolphins' primary back) finished the season with 238 rushing attempts and 1,350 yards across 16 games.
Of course, the loss of Tyler Biadasz with a season-ending ACL injury doesn't help the outlook on the interior of the line. But if Jake Slaughter can put up average center play as a rookie and neither Cole Strange nor Kayode Awosika bring down the overall cohesion of the line, this is a unit that should be able to open up similar upside for Hampton.
When you combine that with his pass-catching skill set—evidenced by his 73 receptions over his three seasons at North Carolina—Hampton has a chance to be one of the most productive backs in the league and the key cog for the Los Angeles offense this season.
Hampton isn't the favorite to lead the league in rushing yards. James Cook and Bijan Robinson are still operating at the top of their games, and Jahmyr Gibbs should see an enhanced workload now that David Montgomery has moved down to Houston. But even if he doesn't reach that lofty mark, even a 1,000-yard season out of Hampton would work wonders for the viability of the Chargers offense—and it's more than reasonable to expect that if he can stay healthy.
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