This week in the NFL has been stuffed with new contracts being handed out to the league’s best. Specifically, the running back position has been getting PAID.
Early Thursday morning, it was reported that the Colts and Jonathan Taylor agreed to a new two-year, $44 million extension. This came on the heels of the Falcons and Bijan Robinson coming to terms on a massive three-year, $75 million extension which made him the highest-paid player at the position in NFL history.
After a promising rookie season
from Hampton despite the injuries, the future looks extremely bright and that feeling only amplified with the addition of Mike McDaniel as offensive coordinator. Hampton’s rookie season, from an efficiency standpoint, was very similar to Robinson. On a per-game basis, Robinson averaged 86 yards of total offense and scored .47 touchdowns. Hampton was right behind him with 82 yards of offense and .55 touchdowns.
Robinson exploded for 1,887 yards of total offense and 15 touchdowns in his second season which was the springboard that sent him into the stratosphere of NFL backs. But things got even better in year three as he took it (somehow) to another level with 2,298 yards of offense but regressed a bit with 11 total scores.
Now it would be foolish to believe Hampton will have a similar jump from year one to two, but it also wouldn’t be the craziest prediction given the circumstances. His full 17-game pace under Greg Roman and that abysmal offensive line was 1,394 yards of offense and nine touchdowns. Now imagine an full year with Rashawn Slater and Joe Alt at tackle on top of the new system.
Is 1,600+ yards of total offense and 12+ touchdowns all that out of the question? I truly don’t think it is.
If Hampton follows the type of path every single Chargers fan wants him to over the next two seasons, the team will be in a situation where they may have to make a massive extension work all while navigating a potential extension for Alt and the latter (and expensive) years on the contracts for Justin Herbert and Slater.
It’s good to see the running back market back up and running in time for these deserving players to get their bag, but that doesn’t mean it won’t have its drawbacks for the Chargers when they’re looking to build their team for the latter half of Herbert’s career.
