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RB Austin Ekeler, WAS (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Ketamine Dreams
- Start date
Crazysight
Footballguy
So what are we expecting from Ekeler this year? Seems he’s been kind of forgotten with more of the preseason emphasis on Gordon, but he did average over 5 1/2 yards per carry as a rookie, plus quality stats as a receiver. He needs to not put the ball on the ground, hopefully he’ll have that corrected. Still a great long term value in dynasty leagues imo at only 23 years old.
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Just Win Baby
Footballguy
If he stays healthy, I expect something like 80 carries and 70 targets. If Gordon misses time, that could go up. I'm not sure how fantasy useful he will be, but as a Chargers fan I am happy they have him.
If Gordon misses time that "could go up"??? I was under the impression he's the backup and handcuff. Shouldn't the sentence read, if Gordon misses time he instantly becomes a top 15 weekly play??? Or am I missing something?
Elevencents
Footballguy
Great late round flyer but don’t think he will be a worthy start unless Gordon goes down. But if that happens look out - instant top 10 potential.
DarkKnightsGuru
Footballguy
great lottery ticket with a guy whos injury prone
ericttspikes
Footballguy
In a cut 5 dynasty league I kept Gio over him and not sure I made the right choice, primarily due to age. Either guy doesn't seem like a long term solution for me at RB but I like Ekeler's game.
Just Win Baby
Footballguy
Yeah, I worded that poorly. If Gordon misses a little time and Ekeler is healthy, his usage will go up. But I don't think he gets all of Gordon's workload. I think there would be more passing and other RBs would be used in some sort of committee. I do not think Ekeler is an automatic top 15 weekly play if Gordon is known in advance to be missing a game.
need2know
Footballguy
Bojang0301
Omar4Heisman
Detrez Newsome
Averaged over 1000 yards and 6.0 ypc his last 3 years of college and caught 100 passes during his collegiate career. Justin Jackson weighs 180lbs and already hasn’t been healthy. After Pumphrey, I just can’t put too much stock in a back that is that slight.
SameSongNDance
Footballguy
Ekeler is 3 inches shorter and 7-10 pounds heavier than Jackson. I think he'd hold up better but I also think Ekeler would find himself in a timeshare regardless.
Bojang0301
Omar4Heisman
Oh, I love Ekeler. I agree with your assessment on a split and that’s why I’ve been targeting Newsome in deep leagues. Some of his auxiliaries are lower than I look for but he front flipped in pads so I sort of thought his athleticism may be undersold. He also had a really good collegiate career and mimics what the front office looks for in their RB’s which seems to be dual threat and explosive.
Bojang0301
Omar4Heisman
*Correction backflip
6yd TD and backflip
College highlights
I’d honestly be pretty happy if he could mimic Branden Oliver pre-injuries. Same size, similar athletic profiles and production. He’s a nice stash.
6yd TD and backflip
College highlights
I’d honestly be pretty happy if he could mimic Branden Oliver pre-injuries. Same size, similar athletic profiles and production. He’s a nice stash.
JFS171
Footballguy
I thought Ekeler was pretty stout. Getting an accurate reading on his height/weight has proven pretty difficult however.
Draftscout lists him as 5075 and 195 lbs as a prospect. Playerprofiler.com has 5-9 and 199. Chargers website has 5-10 and 200.
The weight is relatively consistent - I’d bet he weighs close to 200 after a year in an NFL strength and conditioning program. If he’s truly 5075 as per draftscout, that’s fairly stout. Even at 5-9 and 199, playerprofiler has his BMI at 29.4. They have Melvin Gordon’s at 28.4.
SameSongNDance
Footballguy
If you draft Gordon, you need to cuff him with Ekeler full stop.
BobbyLayne
Footballguy
I hate handcuffs. Often its a dead roster spot and sometimes doesn't even work out when the starter goes down.
Ekeler is dynomite, though, and I feel like he's gonna be a pretty decent RB3 even if Gordon stays healthy or does something insane like average 4.0.
SameSongNDance
Footballguy
I generally agree with you, I very rarely go out of my way to handcuff and will only do it if it makes sense or I'm in a league that goes past round 15. I actually think you can view Ekeler similarly to Coleman as they'll play on a similar amount of snaps (~30%) and get a similar amount of touches (I expect Coleman to get slightly more work on the ground). But the point is handcuffing Freeman with Coleman will almost always take too much draft capital where as handcuffing Gordon with Ekeler is essentially free. There's only a small list of players where I think handcuffing makes sense and Ekeler is one of them. I also consider Conner and Ware to be apart of that list. If I draft Bell there's a 0% chance I come out of the draft without Conner on my bench, Ware less so but he's still a very good hedge.
Hopeful Ekeler owner here. Play in a league that starts 30 RB so any RB that is even sniffing close to double digit touches each week matters.
What is it about Ekeler’s skill set vs Gordon means he’ll be Colemanesque and get those kind of snaps? All I know about him is I owned Gordon last year and Ekeler in the second half continued to be an annoying vulture!
I want to believe.
What is it about Ekeler’s skill set vs Gordon means he’ll be Colemanesque and get those kind of snaps? All I know about him is I owned Gordon last year and Ekeler in the second half continued to be an annoying vulture!
I want to believe.
SameSongNDance
Footballguy
Dinsy Ejotuz
Footballguy
Woodhead averaged something like 1.17 ppr points per touch during his core years. Sproles was at 1.37. Ekeler did 1.5 last season.
So 1.25 PPT seems very likely, or at least doable, and unless you think he's likely to get fewer than 8 touches per game, he's a RB3 in PPR leagues. Six touches per game, still gets you to ~RB4 territory. Currently being drafted as a RB5.
And he's sturdy enough to handle more touches if Gordon goes down. IMO he's an absolute MUST own if you draft Gordon. Ditto that for Spencer Ware.
So 1.25 PPT seems very likely, or at least doable, and unless you think he's likely to get fewer than 8 touches per game, he's a RB3 in PPR leagues. Six touches per game, still gets you to ~RB4 territory. Currently being drafted as a RB5.
And he's sturdy enough to handle more touches if Gordon goes down. IMO he's an absolute MUST own if you draft Gordon. Ditto that for Spencer Ware.
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SameSongNDance
Footballguy
His TD to touch and TD to reception rates look unsustainable and may account for the inflated points per touch. He scored a TD on 6.8% of his touches which was second only to Rex Burkhead (amongst the top 36 RBs) last year. He scored a TD on 11.1% of his receptions which was second only to Blount and Stewart who combined for 16 receptions (so they're complete outliers).
I like Ekeler but I'm naturally expecting TD regression. I don't know if that would put him in the 1.25 PPT range (it could, I wouldn't know).
Dinsy Ejotuz
Footballguy
I forget the actual #s now, but I did look at this and ding him a couple TDs -- and it gets you into a believable range.
Just Win Baby
Footballguy
I didn't understand the hype from the jump. He was a 7th round pick for a reason.pbandy1 said:
cloppbeast
Footballguy
the lone star
Footballguy
picked this guy up after the rookie draft in my dynasty league. LOVE that I got him.
Crazysight
Footballguy
Criminally underutilized today. Is averaging eight yards per carry this year. EIGHT. Saw a total of 7 touches today.
Ahmad Rashad
Footballguy
Gordon's inactive in London vs. Tennessee. Ekeler in for a larger role. Let's see how he does with a bigger workload.
Hopefully he puts up big numbers...
Hopefully he puts up big numbers...
Judge Smails
Footballguy
Titans good against the run and vs receiving running backs so far so tempering expectations. Would love 80 combined yards and a score but I dunno
I don't think he'll see the same workload Gordon would have, especially around the GL. I'm expecting Ekeler to be possibly be used even more in the passing game though.
I'm guessing he'll be discount McCaffrey this week, as far as production.
Ghost Rider
Footballguy
I'm cautiously optimistic about Ekeler today. He has been a very good spot flex starter, especially in my distance scoring league, but by no means am I assuming he will be put up Melvin Gordon-numbers today. I'd be thrilled with 90-100 yards combined and 3-5 catches.
Gottabesweet
Footballguy
Pathetic.
JoeSteeler
Footballguy
just went over DD in PPR with 12:00 left. Would be nice to see him get at least 5 more pts.
Judge Smails
Footballguy
As expected Titans did a really good job vs RBs. Not just vs the rush but they were on him on every route as well. It was the matchup
Sasgaard
Footballguy
this showed today the limitations of a small RB against good run defenses. Ekeler is a great player but he can only reach his potential when he has Gordon in front of him taking a lot of the carries so when he comes in, he's fresh, the defenses don't key on him like Tennessee did today, etc...
without Gordon, Ekeler will struggle.
without Gordon, Ekeler will struggle.
Also looked like Ekeler was struggling with the field. He didn't seem sure footed when making cuts.
Sasgaard
Footballguy
I live in the states but I'm from France, born and raised there. I played Rugby growing up as it is a popular game in France and yeah, playing on natural grass is on a different planet than turf. The soccer European grass is also different than American football grass. It's a lot thicker and softer. The field is beat up after the game. The footing is completely different and requires higher cleats. It takes time to get used to it
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Just Win Baby
Footballguy
It was the matchup, but also the fact that the Chargers ran only 44 offensive plays. They averaged 61 offensive plays in the first 6 games. Of course, that was partly due to the Titans strategy on both offense and defense, but also due to the fact that the Chargers shortened two drives with long TD passes.
I didn't think he looked at all special.
As JWB let on, they didn't have the ball enough but also the quick strikes were working well.
He seems like just a guy. I'm not sure the backup has to be uber talented with Gordon around.
Jackson had nice awareness on that flip pass Rivers threw over his shoulder.
They're backups and they did their job just fine. I think any complaint is essentially "they're not Gordon" and we knew that
As JWB let on, they didn't have the ball enough but also the quick strikes were working well.
He seems like just a guy. I'm not sure the backup has to be uber talented with Gordon around.
Jackson had nice awareness on that flip pass Rivers threw over his shoulder.
They're backups and they did their job just fine. I think any complaint is essentially "they're not Gordon" and we knew that
Gottabesweet
Footballguy
I'm sure they'll give him a run or two with a short leash in short-yardage. He ran hard in between the tackles last week on a TD run.
ShamrockPride
Footballguy
Yep I remembered that run. Was physical, banging, and found his way through. That one play will help him immensely with coaching and goal line workload going forward.
