The Chargers selected Omarion Hampton in the first round, indicating they see him as their feature back at the position -- eventually. But they also signed Najee Harris, so Hampton may need to wait a little. But we'll see.
Harris was at a 4th of July event where a fireworks mishap resulted in injuries to several attendees. According to his agent, Harris sustained a "superficial eye injury." That's all the details I can find, unless I go down the rabbit hole of supposed comedians on Twitter running pictures of Nick Fury and Jason Pierre-Paul. Hilarious.
But I did find it interesting that his agent's statement indicates not that Harris would be ready for the start of training camp at the end of July, but "fully expected to be ready for the start of the upcoming season." That's different.
Hopefully Harris is OK, but seems like it will be Hampton getting the first snaps in practice when training camp opens. And that's an advantage for a player who by all accounts has looked very good in minicamp work all along.
"He's the total package," offensive coordinator Greg Roman was quoted as saying a little while back. "You don't see a lot of guys find a hole like he's doing right now."
Harris was signed to a one-year, $5.25 million contract, with a signing bonus of nearly $4 million. He's not going anywhere, and if he's healthy, he'll have a role.
But this development makes it pretty likely Hampton will get the early chances at camp, and teams tend to give the better back more work. And Roman's offenses have generally favored a featured, workhorse running back.
Looking over his career as an offensive coordinator (San Francisco, Buffalo, Baltimore and Los Angeles) he's had a lot of strong No. 1s, and sparsely used No. 2s.
Table shows his top 2 backs at each of his various stops over the last 15 years -- 11 different offenses. Nine times he had a top-25 running back (PPR), and three of those players finished in the top 10 at the position. The No. 2 on each of those teams generally didn't put up good numbers, instead finishing in the 40s or 50s at the position. In the table, top-25 backs are in bold.
| GREG ROMAN TOP 2 RUNNING BACKS, 2011-2024 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | Att | Run | No | Rec | TD | Rk |
| 2011 | Frank Gore, S.F. | 282 | 1211 | 17 | 114 | 8 | 17 |
| 2011 | Kendall Hunter, S.F. | 112 | 473 | 16 | 195 | 2 | 45 |
| 2012 | Frank Gore, S.F. | 258 | 1214 | 28 | 234 | 10 | 10 |
| 2012 | Kendall Hunter, S.F. | 72 | 371 | 9 | 60 | 2 | 61 |
| 2013 | Frank Gore, S.F. | 276 | 1128 | 16 | 141 | 9 | 18 |
| 2013 | Kendall Hunter, S.F. | 78 | 358 | 2 | 13 | 4 | 61 |
| 2014 | Frank Gore, S.F. | 255 | 1106 | 11 | 111 | 5 | 21 |
| 2014 | Carlos Hyde, S.F. | 83 | 333 | 12 | 68 | 4 | 61 |
| 2015 | LeSean McCoy, Buff. | 203 | 895 | 32 | 292 | 5 | 17 |
| 2015 | Karlos Williams, Buff. | 93 | 517 | 11 | 96 | 9 | 38 |
| 2016 | LeSean McCoy, Buff. | 234 | 1267 | 50 | 356 | 14 | 4 |
| 2016 | Mike Gillislee, Buff. | 101 | 577 | 9 | 50 | 9 | 40 |
| 2019 | Mark Ingram, Balt. | 202 | 1018 | 26 | 247 | 15 | 10 |
| 2019 | Gus Edwards, Balt. | 133 | 711 | 7 | 45 | 2 | 51 |
| 2020 | J.K. Dobbins, Balt. | 134 | 805 | 18 | 120 | 9 | 24 |
| 2020 | Gus Edwards, Balt. | 144 | 723 | 9 | 129 | 6 | 37 |
| 2021 | Devonta Freeman, Balt. | 133 | 576 | 34 | 190 | 6 | 32 |
| 2021 | Latavius Murray, Balt. | 119 | 501 | 10 | 75 | 6 | 54 |
| 2022 | Kenyan Drake, Balt. | 109 | 482 | 17 | 89 | 5 | 45 |
| 2022 | J.K. Dobbins, Balt. | 92 | 520 | 7 | 42 | 3 | 57 |
| 2024 | J.K. Dobbins, LAC | 195 | 905 | 32 | 153 | 9 | 24 |
| 2024 | Gus Edwards, LAC | 101 | 365 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 59 |
If Hampton opens as that No. 1 back, which this mishap makes a little more likely, he could be really good. There's some risk (if Harris is healthy, and the team opts to go with the veteran for most of the season, bringing Hampton along slowly), but the upside looks pretty great.
--Andy Richardson