We must refrain from saying Darren Sproles isn’t earning his keep. This is more about the Chargers keeping him from earning it.
Really now. The Chargers’ running back isn’t very big, but that doesn’t mean he can be made invisible, that he has to disappear at times on the football field. Sproles is dangerous, and NFL teams must prepare for danger, be he 6-foot-6, which he isn’t, or 5-foot-6, which he is.
“That’s the way it is,” he says. “If they need me to block, I’ll block. If they need me to get downfield, I’ll get downfield. I just go out and do my job. If they give me the ball, they give me the ball.”
So give him the ball.
In the loss to Seattle, he played a lot, but was used mostly as a blocking back. He had one carry (not enough) for 16 yards (not bad) and one catch (not enough) for 10 more (not bad). Thus far, he has 10 touches (returns not included) for 128 yards. Help me out here. That’s a whole lot of dough per try from scrimmage.