Austin Ekeler

Week 2 at Buffalo Bills

The Bills lost 47-3 to the Ravens last week. Sooooooo, yeah. Start your Chargers. What's most encouraging about Austin Ekeler's stat line last week was getting 10 touches, including catching all five targets, while playing less than 30 percent of snaps. That shows the coaching staff wants to get him involved when he's on the field. This could turn into a blowout for the Bills again, who allowed three touchdowns to Ravens RBs last week and were only 24th in aFPA to RBs last year. Ekeler could be a FLEX consideration in deeper leagues this week and an extremely valuable handcuff for Melvin Gordon owners.

Fantasy Upside

This time last year, few people outside of Chargers scouts and coaches knew about Ekeler, an undrafted rookie out of tiny Western State in Colorado. Fast forward one year and the entire NFL knows his name. After an impressive showing in training camp and the preseason, Ekeler made the 53-man roster, eventually establishing himself as a key cog in the Bolts' offense as the team's primary complement to Melvin Gordon.

He was a solid change of pace when running the ball, but he truly established himself as a dangerous receiving option out of the backfield, hauling in 27 passes for 279 yards and three touchdowns, including three receptions of at least 20 yards. Ekeler saw sporadic playing time over the first month of the season, which is why he failed to qualify among league leaders. If he had a few more plays under his belt, his 10.3 yards per catch would have ranked third among all running backs, sandwiched between Todd Gurley and Alvin Kamara. Expect him to continue handling a similar role and workload this season but with a little less anonymity.

Fantasy Downside

Beyond best-ball leagues, it's going to be hard to count on consistent, high-end week-to-week production. In addition, rookie Justin Jackson figures to be the more likely candidate to take over the lead role should something happen to Melvin Gordon. Jackson is Rookie Scouting Portfolio author Matt Waldman's sleeper of the 2018 NFL Draft. According to Waldman, Jackson is an excellent running back who understands how to use his agility, acceleration, quickness, and leverage to set up blocks and work through and around contact. Waldman went on to suggest, "If he can shore up the tendency for focus drops and prove capable as a pass protector, Jackson could challenge Ekeler for the No. 2 role this year."

2018 Bottom Line

While Jackson has potential, we know what the coaching staff is willing to ask of Ekeler and there is some stand-alone value along the lines of other receiving specialist/satellite backs. Easily overlooked by less-informed league mates, drafting Ekeler as we have him ranked should provide you with solid value.

Week 14 vs. Washington Redskins

The Chargers have the second-highest implied team total this weekend in Vegas at 26.25 points, and Washington is only 25th in aFPA to running backs this season. Washington has also allowed the third-most rushing yards over the past four weeks and fourth-most red zone touches to RBs in that span. However, these are Ekeler's touches since the bye week: 15, 8, 9, 6. The matchup is good, but you'll need extremely good efficiency from Ekeler given those touch counts. He's an extremely risky FLEX play in PPR leagues and should be avoided in standard leagues.