Chargers GM Tom Telesco addresses Austin Ekeler’s uncertain future in Los Angeles

“Nothing’s changed,” Telesco said. “His situation is unique, I completely understand that, which is why we kinda allowed them to look and see if there was something out there available. It’s not something that, we had no interest in trading him. But fully knowing his situation, we said go ahead and do it… He’s a big part of this team, big part of the offense and obviously we wanna get more explosive, and he leads the league in scoring. He’s a big part of that.”

Signed in 2017 as an undrafted free agent out of Western State, Ekeler has spent the entirety of his six-year NFL career with the Chargers. Over the last two seasons, Ekeler has paced all running backs with 177 receptions for 1,369 receiving yards and 38 total touchdowns. His 915 rushing yards in 2022 were a career-high.

Austin Ekeler says playing for the Chargers in 2023 is ‘worst case scenario’

Ekeler has one year remaining on a four-year, $24.5 million deal he signed with Los Angeles in March 2020. That makes him the 14th-highest-paid Charger entering 2022, and the sixth-highest-paid on offense by annual value. 36 receivers across the league have bigger contracts. Ekeler feels his contributions warrant a pay raise.

“The fact that there’s such a huge drop-off when it comes to the running back market just doesn’t make any sense,” Ekeler said on SiriusXM last month. “We’ve got number three receivers that are going to catch four balls a game, have 600 or 700 yards of offense, score four touchdowns and get eight or nine million dollars a year… I got 1,600 [scrimmage] yards, I got 18 touchdowns and I can’t get above $6 million [a year]?”

Ekeler later called returning to the Chargers in 2023 the “worst case scenario.”

“When it comes down to what’s going on with the whole trade and all that stuff, really, look, we’re trying to find a long-term partner,” Ekeler said, via NFL.com. “That’s what we want. We want someone who wants to sign us for a few years… Sees us not just in the immediate future, but a couple years out. Once everything halted with the Chargers, alright, it was time to go… See if we can find value somewhere else. Because they just kind of showed that they weren’t interested at that time.

“Time will play out. Who knows? We’ll see what happens with the draft. But it’s a situation where, look, if a team wants me in the long term, it’s a year where they’re gonna have to give up picks and then also have to renegotiate, so that’s kind of playing against us for sure. But we’ll see, like I said. Time will tell, and we’ll see what happens after the draft.

“Look, I guess the worst-case scenario right now out of all of it, I’ll come back and I’ll have to play for the Chargers for a year… Bet on myself and then be a free agent next year.”