Austin Ekeler Fantasy Football Profile, News and Stats

Austin Ekeler
RB
, Los Angeles Chargers

Age: 25
Weight: 195 lbs
Height: 5' 10"

ADP: 20
Depth Chart Ranking: 1

Pts	RuYds	RuTD	Rec	RecYds
217	557	3	92	993

Full Season Projection

Full Season Projection
Dfs Projection

Week 1
LAC
@
CIN

Unlock our Projections

View full RB Projections

Salary: $
Week 1 Projection: -
Ownership: -

Salary: $
Week 1 Projection: -
Ownership: -

Salary: $
Week 1 Projection: -
Ownership: -

Salary: $
Week 1 Projection: -
Ownership: -

Left-scroll
middle-scroll
Right-scroll

Draft note

by John Paulsen

Ekeler finished the season as the No. 6 running back (half-PPR) after finishing No. 24 the year before. One of the most versatile running backs in the league, he caught 92 of 108 targets for 993 yards and eight touchdowns, so he would have been the No. 14 fantasy receiver if only his receiving numbers counted! Ekeler would probably be going in the first round if not for the quarterback change in L.A. Philip Rivers was known to pepper his running backs with targets, but Tyrod Taylor didn’t generate big receiving seasons for his backs when he started in Buffalo. (LeSean’s high-water mark in Buffalo was 59 catches in 2017.) I’m expecting Ekeler’s receptions to regress a bit, but he’ll still catch enough balls to have a very good shot to finish in the top 10 in PPR and half-PPR formats.

Latest news

Austin Ekeler signs four-year deal with the Chargers

Adam Schefter

Mar 06 · 2:34 PM EST

Chargers and restricted free-agent RB Austin Ekeler reached agreement on a four-year, $24.5 million deal that includes $15 million guaranteed, sources tell ESPN.

Fantasy Impact:

This deal for Ekeler makes him the starter at RB for Los Angeles as they're clearly moving on from Melvin Gordon. The 24-year old finished as RB4 in total PPR points in 2019, amassing 1,550 combined yards on 132 rushes and 92 receptions. He's currently a second-round pick in early best-ball drafts, but could bump up to a first-rounder as we move through the off-season.

Scouting report

by Bob Harris

· Jul 31 · 10:17 AM EDT

LAC RB Austin Ekeler - 2020 Fantasy Football Outlook

Fantasy Upside
Austin Ekeler agreed to a four-year, $24.5 million deal with the Chargers early this offseason. Of course, as ESPN.com suggested, by letting Melvin Gordon walk, the Chargers had already committed to Ekeler, who emerged as a key contributor over the past two seasons -- even if he's not used in a traditional featured role. In case you missed it, in 2019 Ekeler ran 132 times and caught 92 passes while notching 11 overall touchdowns. Among all running backs last season, Ekeler finished at the top in receiving TDs (eight) and second in receptions. Beyond that, he led all NFL players in catches without a drop (92); his 993 yards receiving were 12th most ever by a running back; he had 10 games with five-plus catches, and was one of five running backs with 1,500-plus total yards and 10-plus total TDs. HC Anthony Lynn wants Ekeler to get 15 to 20 touches a game, a trend that should continue in 2020.

Fantasy Downside
Ekeler has yet to prove himself capable of handling a front-line role and may not be asked to this year either with rookie Joshua Kelley and holdover Justin Jackson standing by to handle early-down and between-the-tackles work as needed. In addition, the departure of Philip Rivers, who clearly locked in on Ekeler regularly last year, opens the door to concerns about this year's QB, whether it's Tyrod Taylor or Justin Herbert, having the same locked-in connection that Ekeler enjoyed with Rivers.

2020 Bottom Line
Whatever the case, Ekeler finished fourth in fantasy points at the position last season. That's impressive. In fact, Ekeler averaged nearly 27 fantasy points a game over the first four weeks of the season and he finished with six top-5 performances -- tied for third-most in the league among running backs. And, as NFL.com noted, his seven 20-plus point games tied for second with Dalvin Cook, Ezekiel Elliott and Derrick Henry. These numbers will lead some to overpay; you should not be among them. Instead, viewing Ekeler as a very high-end RB2 seems like a wise course of action for us.

2020 Strength of Schedule - LAC

W1	W2	W3	W4	W5	W6	W7	W8	W9	W10	W11	W12	W13	W14	W15	W16	W17
27 @CIN	25 KC	32 CAR	1 @TB	3 @NO	11 NYJ	26 @MIA	31 JAX	20 LV	BYE	7 @DEN	17 @BUF	4 NE	9 ATL	20 @LV	7 DEN	25 @KC

Schedule difficulty based on schedule-adjusted, positional defensive ranking. Top DEF = 1, bottom DEF = 32.

2019 Game Stats

Week	Opp	RuAtt	RuYds	RuTD	Fum	YPC	Rec	RecYds	RecTD	Tgts	YPR	STD	PPR	Snaps	%
1	IND	12	58	1	0	4.83	6	96	2	7	16.00	33.4	39.4	48/64	75.0%
2	@DET	17	66	1	1	3.88	6	67	0	6	11.17	17.3	23.3	49/67	73.1%
3	HOU	9	36	0	0	4.00	7	45	0	7	6.43	8.1	15.1	49/75	65.3%
4	@MIA	18	60	1	0	3.33	5	62	1	5	12.40	24.2	29.2	48/67	71.6%
5	DEN	3	7	0	1	2.33	15	86	0	16	5.73	7.3	22.3	46/70	65.7%
6	PIT	5	14	0	0	2.80	3	14	0	4	4.67	2.8	5.8	28/62	45.2%
7	@TEN	5	7	0	0	1.40	7	118	1	8	16.86	18.5	25.5	38/64	59.4%
8	@CHI	3	3	0	0	1.00	2	19	1	3	9.50	8.2	10.2	24/45	53.3%
9	GB	12	70	0	0	5.83	4	23	0	4	5.75	9.3	13.3	24/71	33.8%
10	@LV	6	19	0	0	3.17	2	29	1	2	14.50	10.8	12.8	35/77	45.5%
11	KC	5	24	0	0	4.80	8	108	0	12	13.50	13.2	21.2	46/80	57.5%
12	BYE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
13	@DEN	9	16	0	0	1.78	4	51	1	5	12.75	12.7	16.7	35/66	53.0%
14	@JAX	8	101	0	0	12.62	4	112	1	5	28.00	27.3	31.3	31/63	49.2%
15	MIN	7	19	0	0	2.71	5	62	0	7	12.40	8.1	13.1	30/62	48.4%
16	LV	4	11	0	0	2.75	5	58	0	6	11.60	6.9	11.9	33/61	54.1%
17	@KC	9	46	0	0	5.11	9	43	0	11	4.78	8.9	17.9	45/77	58.4%
Per game		8.25	34.81	0.19	0.13	4.22	5.75	62.06	0.50	6.75	10.79	13.56	19.31	38.06/66.94	56.79%
Totals		132	557	3	2	4.22	92	993	8	108	10.79	217	309	609/1071	56.79%