The Chargers can fix their Austin Ekeler rift by paying him like reasonable adults

Austin Ekeler signed a team-friendly four-year contract extension with the Los Angeles Chargers back in 2020. It was a modest four-year, $24.5 million deal that offered a rising running back financial stability in case he failed to live up to his 2019 breakout and his team the chance to reap a massive bargain if his star continued to rise.

Ekeler’s star hit the stratosphere somewhere around 2021. He led the league in total touchdowns each of the last two seasons. He’s run for more than 900 yards in each of those campaigns while adding 107 receptions in 2022 — tied for second-most in a single season for any running back all-time. He was one of the NFL’s most productive players and getting paid like its 13th-best running back. Ekeler’s salary ranked behind Nyheim Hines and was only $75,000 more than Chase Edmonds’ last fall.

Still, the talented dual threat back held to the deal he signed and waited for the Chargers to reward his work with a lucrative contract extension rather than let him drift toward free agency in 2024. Only Los Angeles hasn’t come through. Ekeler stands to go into the 2023 season as the league’s 14th-highest paid running back. As such, he requested — and was granted — the opportunity to seek out a trade.

But the zero-time Pro Bowler (the Pro Bowl is a fraud) isn’t bitter about the situation. He made it clear there’s a simple solution to this problem. He wants to be paid what he’s worth, and he’d love it if that could happen with the Chargers.

“I think it’s really important to put it out there that it’s not like, ‘Oh, I hate the Chargers and I need to get out of this organization, and I need to leave,'” Ekeler told former NFL star Chris Long on the Green Light with Chris Long podcast. “That couldn’t be further from the truth. I would like to stay if it was under the right circumstances.

“I have one more year on my contract there, so I’m contractually obligated to play for them for this upcoming year. So, we’re in a situation where it’s like, look, we have no guarantees or anything like that this year, so kind of in a spot where I’ve been outplaying my contract, and we might have an opportunity to go seek out other options that can bring me up.”

This is extremely reasonable! The Chargers have benefitted greatly from Ekeler’s dirt cheap contract. He’s been a major factor in Justin Herbert’s rise as a starting quarterback. He’s a valuable runner who averaged an extra 0.49 yards over expected per carry (via NFL’s Next Gen Stats), has 44 more catches than any running back over the last three seasons and has developed into a viable, blitz-clearing blocker when called upon.

Ekeler in pass pro on that long TD from Herbert to Williams pic.twitter.com/AJQavV0NlE

— Shawn (@SyedSchemes) November 22, 2021

Ekeler would like to secure the kind of contract that ensures he makes more over his career than David Johnson. The Chargers have the space to give him a front-loaded extension thanks to more than $13 million in effective salary cap space, per Over The Cap. The issue for the team then becomes figuring out 2024, where LA is a projected $24 million over next year’s estimated $256 million spending limit. Signing Herbert to a long-term extension would ease some of his $29 million cap hit next fall, but also tie up space down the line.

There are several moving parts in play, but general manager Tom Telesco’s reticence in handing one of his best, and most recognizable, players is a quiet suggestion he doesn’t want Ekeler to be one of them. But the salary cap can be tamed — the New Orleans Saints are giving Alvin Kamara $15 million annually — and there’s a clear solutions that would keep both sides happy.

That’s paying the star running back whose utility in the passing game and injury history suggests he’ll remain a strong contributor for years to come. Betting on running backs is a risk in the NFL, so Ekeler bet on himself in 2020. That faith paid off in spades and the Chargers reaped the rewards. Now Ekeler wants his franchise to return the favor — or he’ll find another one who will.