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I haven't done any projections, but I think that stat line is probably a reasonable best case. By reasonable best case, I don't mean absolute ceiling, I mean that if he stays healthy and the important teammates around him stay healthy (e.g., OL, QB), that is a reasonable projection. I might project a few more receptions but lower YPR, so it largely washes out.
Oh do you mean in dynasty?
Jackson's role in the offense is yet undefined. He has shown flashes of being a very good back, but with the addition of Joshua Kelley, it is uncertain if Jackson is even the handcuff to own in the Chargers' backfield, and I do not expect either Jackson or Kelley to assume Gordon's share in what may be a reduced offense. If Jackson is available on your waiver wire, he is worth a speculative add and hold, regardless of whether you own Ekeler, but I doubt Jackson will fetch you much on the trade market. If I owned any shares of Jackson, I would likely hold to assess his early-season usage, and in the event of an Ekeler injury, you could find yourself with a valuable asset.
If you're going to drop him anyway, his value is any draft pick you can pull. I can't see anyone paying a 2nd, but a 3rd should be gettable.
Could maybe get a late round pick from some one.hispeedthinmint said:
Unless it means more punts and "winning with defense and a 4th quarter FG" attitude. A receding tide lowers all boats in terms of offensive production. The only charger I would have any interest in this season is Hunter Henry. That's not because I think he's an unstoppable force but because he is likely the receiver most likely to be schemed to get open and Taylor throws most often to a wide open guy.
We all know Rivers had a huge crush on Ekeler...if you were to wild guess what % of Ekeler targets would you say were designed Ekeler plays vs. Rivers knowing exactly where he was on his 2nd-4th read?
No idea. This PFF article says Rivers had 121 checkdowns in 2018-19. I assume the majority of those were to Gordon and Ekeler, but they combined for 282 targets in 2018-19, so checkdowns must have been less than half of those targets.
Agreed. I've had Ekeler on a team somewhere everywhere the last few years, but am not buying at this year's ADP, largely because I do not trust his QB to get him the ball consistently. It's not as simple as dumping off a screen to a guy behind the line of scrimmage and then him making magic. So many of those big players Ekeler made in the passing game, like you said, were when Rivers hit him in stride on a wheel route or something like that. That kind of timing and chemistry was amazing, and if it's off just a little with Taylor or the rookie, Ekeler's numbers will plummet.
Yup. It also would kill me in that I am taking the above risk knowing last year I got him in round 8.
Agreed. Feels like the classic case of a guy constantly being awesome value in drafts, and then the year he finally gets drafted high, he underperforms.
I’m with you a 1,000%. Say what you want about Rivers but he stretched the field by taking shots and had great touch on dump offs. Ekeler will sorely miss him in the passing game. The whole offense will be. Boring.
This is a pretty bad take IMO:
Playing devils advocate here...
McCoy played 2 seasons with Lynn and Tyrod in Buffalo:
IMO this remains to be seen. When Lynn was with McCoy in 2015-2016, the Bills were at the bottom of the NFL in passing attempts. It was a completely different offense. In fairness, Allen, Williams (when healthy), Henry, and Ekeler are stronger targets than Tyrod had in Buffalo, although Watkins, Woods, Hogan, Clay, and McCoy wasn't bad at all. But on the flip side, Tyrod probably had a better OL than he is going to have this year in LA.
Fair points. But consider:
I guess I’d disagree with your notion that Taylor isn’t effective at leveraging RB’s in the pass game. In 2016-2017, the BUF pass game saw 211 of its 950 (22.2%) targets go to RB’s. In those seasons, McCoy finished 10th and 6th In RB receptions. During that same time SDC/LAC had 236 of its 1163 (20.3%) targets go to RB’s.
Well, first off, I'd argue that it is about more than receptions, which is what you focused on here.TheDirtyWord said:
Really? The first ten games for LAC are CIN/KC/CAR/TB/NO/NYJ/MIA/JAX/LV
I assume that ranking for the defense was including Derwin James, who is now out for the season. Aside from that, as a long term Chargers fan, I've learned not to take any opponent for granted, ever. We'll see.
Even without James, though, this Los Angeles Chargers team still fields a top-10 defense.
I hope that's right. But on their 2 deep, they return 7 DL, 4 LB, and 5 DBs from last season on defense. They added DL Joseph and CB Harris via free agency and first round LB Murray and can hope for improvement from last year's rookies. So they might be great. But many thought they would be great last season, yet they were a bit of a disappointment. No doubt, James getting hurt contributed to that... and now he is out for the season. We'll see. Not counting any chickens yet.
Gamesmanship? Just feels like a perfect storm for an 8 catch gem by Ekeler this week...Just shows how dumb some NFL coaches are. Your new scheme limits checkdowns to RB's, even though you have one of the best receiving RB's in the league. Just brilliant.
