The Los Angeles Chargers' run game, after five disappointing weeks for the team as a whole, actually hasn't been as abysmal as intuition may lead you to believe.
It certainly hasn't been the league-leading sort of attack we expected to see this offseason with Mike McDaniel coming into the fold, and it hasn't truly paid dividends for the offense as a whole. But after a respectable showing against the Denver Broncos on Sunday, Los Angeles sits at ninth in the league in total rushing yards and at 14th in rushing yards per attempt. Compared to their -0.22 total EPA/play (which is the worst mark in the league to this point in the season), the results of the run game have actually been slightly better than expected.
It seems as though all hope for a monstrous season out of second-year running back Omarion Hampton is now off the table, though. Through five games, he's amassed 73 attempts for 271 yards and three touchdowns. That still puts him on pace for roughly 1,000 yards on the season, but McDaniel has seemed much more intent on operating a split backfield with Hampton and Keaton Mitchell than maximizing the production of the team's best running back.
That's a viable strategy, at least in theory. Many of the league's best backfields over the past few seasons have utilized a relatively even split in touches. Perhaps, as Hampton progresses further into his career, Los Angeles will look to limit injury risk by taking the same route with their backfield construction.
But even if a decreased workload is in the cards for 2026 and beyond, Hampton still has all the tools he needs to be a star of the future for the Chargers. It just may not play out in his Fantasy Football production.
Omarion Hampton is still a key piece of the future of this Chargers team
Obviously, there was plenty of room for concern when McDaniel allowed Mitchell to exceed Hampton in touches in Week 4 against the Seattle Seahawks. It was additionally concerning that, even when Hampton was consistently gaining ground on his touches, McDaniel continued to revert to Mitchell in key situations.
But things found a relatively sustainable balance in Week 5 against the Denver Broncos. In that game, Hampton posted 14 touches. Mitchell saw six, and Kimani Vidal saw eight. Although Hampton averaged just 2.4 yards per carry, it's hard to truly evaluate his effectiveness when the offensive line was depleted as heavily as it was.
Even in light of his full-season numbers, though, Hampton simply hasn't put up the production that Chargers fans were hoping for this year. But here's the fact of the matter.
Mitchell may be the better situational fit for McDaniel's scheme (if you want to trust his scheme at all at this point). He may have more experience with the outside-zone run, and he may not have the ball security issues that Hampton has struggled with so far this season. Perhaps, under another offensive coordinator and in a new system, a similarly complementary back will be brought into the fold. That's part of the modern NFL, and it's not totally out of the realm of possibility.
But no running back the Chargers could bring in, short of another first-round selection, will possess the pure blend of explosiveness, athleticism, and violence in the second level that Hampton does. When he's able to find a gap, especially on the interior, he's more than capable of slingshotting through, bouncing off linebackers and finding openings for explosive runs when they're available. He averaged 4.4 yards-per-attempt with the worst interior offensive line in the league last season. When the Chargers offense gets right (whether that's under McDaniel or not), Hampton will be fine.
He's also only 14th (!!) in total rushing attempts this season, even after being surpassed by Mitchell in Week 4. That puts him on par, temporarily, with backs like Javonte Williams and Bucky Irving. He's not going to lead the league in rushing yards with that workload, but it hasn't been a completely disastrous season for him.
Having a player like Hampton in the backfield is one of many keys to an NFL offense—a running back cannot keep an offense afloat on his own, but he can take it up multiple notches when the rest of the scheme is clicking. Although we haven't seen Hampton do that at the NFL level, there hasn't been the infrastructure around him to start tearing down the profile he came out of college with.
Mitchell should not be surpassing Hampton for touches in almost any situation, and there's plenty of room to argue that McDaniel's reluctance to lean more heavily on Hampton is part of the issue with this offense.
But if Mitchell (or any other complementary back in the Chargers offense) takes on six, seven, or eight touches a game, Hampton's role is still to lead the charge on the ground. That's what makes a star running back, and whenever the Chargers can put a viable offense on the field again, we'll see Hampton display that skill-set—no matter how many touches he ultimately gets.
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