Chargers RB Austin Ekeler did an interview with SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio and offered some insight on his situation with the team.
The Chargers have given Ekeler permission to discuss a trade with other teams after contract negotiations between the two went nowhere. Ekeler is in the final year of his deal and says the “worst-case scenario” right now is that he comes back and finishes it out with the Chargers in 2023.
He added it’s going to take time and it’s possible something could end up coming together after the draft.
“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. “That’s what we want. We want someone who wants to sign us for a few years and 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 and 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’ll have to give up picks and then I’ll have to renegotiate, so that’s kind of playing into it for sure. But we’ll see, like I said. Time will tell, and we’ll see what happens after the draft.”
Ekeler said he and his agent approached the team last offseason about an extension after he massively outperformed his deal in 2021. They tried to restart talks after another outstanding season in 2022 but they ended up going nowhere, leaving Ekeler feeling like he got “punched in the face” even though he wants to stay in Los Angeles.
“Last year, we went to them and were like, ‘Hey, are you guys interested?’ It was definitely too early then; we didn’t really have as much leverage so we didn’t try as hard,” Ekeler said. “They gave us an offer, but it was like, ‘Hey, take this and we can continue our discount that we’re getting.’ And we were like, ‘Ah, we can’t do that.’ So I played this year on my contract again and obviously set the bar high, way higher than I’m actually being compensated for once again.
“So now after this year ended, it was around the combine that a lot of these talks start happening. … Basically, we just could not even get close to… It wasn’t even much of a negotiation. It was just kind of a, more so ‘hey, this is what we’re thinking, this is what they’re thinking,’ and it was just OK, we are not on the same page, let’s just end this because I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”
Because the two sides were so far apart in their perspectives for a potential extension, Ekeler said he felt like he had no choice but to request a trade and see if another team might value him more than the Chargers.
“Pretty much after that it was we want to get traded, we want to go and actually look for value somewhere else and see if someone else might have some interest in us in a longer-term partnership. That’s kind of the scenario that I’m in right now and that’s what it’s been. Now we’re just going through and playing the game.”
Ekeler is entering the final year of his contract and stands to make a base salary of $6,250,000 for the 2023 season, which is far below the going rate for his production.
Ekeler, 27, wound up going undrafted out of Western State back in 2017. He played out the final year of his three-year contract and was in line to be a restricted free agent when he agreed to a four-year, $24.5 million deal that includes $15 million guaranteed.
Ekeler is in line to be an unrestricted free agent in 2024.
In 2022, Ekeler appeared in all 17 games for the Chargers and rushed for 915 yards on 204 carries (4.5 YPC) to go along with 107 receptions for 722 yards and 18 total touchdowns.
We’ll have more on Ekeler as the news is available.
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