First, it was Najee Harris, crumpling to the ground with a season-ending torn Achilles in the Los Angeles Chargers’ Week 3 win over the Denver Broncos. Now, the injury bug has come again for the Chargers’ running back room, as rookie Omarion Hampton suffered an ankle sprain in the Week 5 loss to the Washington Commanders. Per ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Los Angeles placed him on Injured Reserve on Monday afternoon, ruling him out for at least four weeks.
Once a position of relative strength — or, at least, promise — the Chargers’ outlook at the position is grim while Hampton rehabilitates his injury. The only healthy running backs on the active roster right now are Hassan Haskins and Kimani Vidal, who have combined for nine carries this season. Amar Johnson is on the practice squad and will presumably be promoted to the active roster this week. It’s not a crew that inspires confidence: Haskins has 64 career carries in his three-season career and missed the entire 2023 campaign with an upper-body injury, and Vidal turned his 43 carries into just 155 yards last season. Vidal’s 32.6% success rate would have ranked dead last in the league last season if he’d taken enough carries to qualify.
Over the following four weeks, Los Angeles will probably lean heavily on the right arm of star quarterback Justin Herbert, whose wide receiver cast — Keenan Allen, Ladd McConkey, and Quentin Johnston — is far more trustworthy than either Haskins or Vidal. But the Chargers’ offense can’t be entirely one-note, so one of Haskins or Vidal will be thrust into the biggest role of his career for four games. Sunday’s loss didn’t offer much of a clue as to which back that will be: Haskins took the first three carries after Hampton left the game, and Vidal had four after that. Vidal played better, breaking off an 11-yard run, but it’s a very small sample size.
While there’s no guarantee who will win the job in practice this week, I’d lean towards Vidal. He played a big role last season when starter J.K. Dobbins missed four games towards the end of the year, contributing a solid 20 carries and 87 yards, while Haskins hardly played at all. Plus, pass blocking is a path towards more consistent playing time, and Vidal has been a much better blocker than Haskins has been this season, albeit in a very small sample size. If that holds over a larger sample, Vidal’s sure hands and tackle-breaking ability could make him an asset in the passing game. He and Haskins each scored one receiving touchdown last season, but Vidal made two more catches. Vidal is also younger and theoretically has more room to improve.
It’s worth picking up Vidal for the Week 5 matchup against the Miami Dolphins and re-assessing afterwards. This season, Miami has been easily the league’s worst run defense, allowing 871 yards — 137 more than any other team — and six scores. The Dolphins have also allowed an eye-popping 5.6 yards per attempt, second only to the Chicago Bears, so either running back could provide value against Miami. Los Angeles will also face the Minnesota Vikings, who have allowed the seventh-most rushing yards, in Week 7, as well as the Tennessee Titans (second-most) in Week 8, so I have genuinely high hopes for Vidal across this stretch, especially since the Vikings have an elite secondary that would disincentivize Herbert from throwing.
