Last season was the first in Austin Ekeler’s career in which he did not finish with positive fantasy points over expectation. And although he produced several RB1 weeks when healthy, he was also held below the RB2 threshold much of the time, including all but two games from Week 11 on.
At 29 years old, this sort of decline is far from unprecedented. And in that context it’s not a surprise that he wasn’t able to come to an agreement with the Chargers, despite rhetoric from the new coaching staff indicating they wanted to retain him. In Jim Harbaugh’s words:
I like Austin Ekeler. We’re going to have a huge emphasis on the run game, and we gotta block better up front. He’s a tremendous back and we’d love to have him on the team next year.
Whether Harbaugh truly believes this or not is anyone’s guess, but after Ekeler’s rushing performance in 2023, it’s hard to make a case that he’s still an asset in the run game. Among the 37 running backs who carried the ball at least 150 times, Ekeler was No. 30 in yards before contact per attempt (1.2), No. 34 in yards after contact per attempt (2.3), and No. 30 in forced missed tackle rate (3%). Only two qualifying players — A.J. Dillon and Ezekiel Elliott — gained fewer yards per carry. While Harbaugh is probably right that the offensive line shoulders some of the blame, Ekeler rushed for 48 yards fewer than expected according to NFL Next Gen Stats.
