Los Angeles Chargers: Should Melvin Gordon be traded?

The idea of the Los Angeles Chargers trading Melvin Gordon has some merit in the NFL world, which opens the discussion of if the team should do it.

When healthy, Melvin Gordon is one of the best running backs in the entire league. The Los Angeles Chargers has not really gotten his recognition as an elite back until the 2018 season, where he was one of the best in the league until his injury.

Gordon was in the top three in rushing yards and touchdowns prior to his injury and trailed just Todd Gurley for the most non-quarterback touchdowns in the league. He was putting up numbers that only Gurley and Ezekiel Elliot was besting and would have finished that way if he played all 16 games.

He is the spark plug to the Chargers offense and is a huge factor in both the running and passing game. The Chargers did not swing and miss on Gordon like you could say the team did on Ryan Matthews and he is the best running back the team has had since LaDainian Tomlinson.

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All this high praise for Gordon and there is a chance that he might not be a long-term Charger.

Gordon is entering the last year of his contract and the Chargers are going to have to work out an extension and pay him like the great running back he is. With Philip Rivers eventually turning the team over to a new quarterback in the next few years, the Chargers can pay Gordon $60 million over four years.

However, the case for trading Gordon has been brought up. Brad Gagnon of Bleacher Report thinks that Gordon is the Chargers’ most valuable trade chip, and well, he is.

If the Los Angeles Chargers have no interest in re-signing Gordon then he is obviously a valuable trade chip.

Should he be traded?

The team has running back depth in Austin Ekeler and Justin Jackson. Ekeler has been a threat in the passing and running game as well and has starting running back talent.

Jackson had a huge game against the Pittsburgh Steelers this season and if anything proved that he can at least fit the role that Ekeler is currently in and be just as efficient.

Ekeler was undrafted and Jackson was drafted in the seventh round, proving that you might not need the big name first-round picks to be efficient at running back, which means you don’t have to pay that kind of money.

With that in mind, it does seem like a smart idea for the Chargers to trade Gordon if the team indeed does not want to re-up his contract.

But they shouldn’t.

The case for trading Gordon certainly is a viable one and if the Chargers did trade the running back it would not be the end of the world. However, for a team that is on the brink of a Super Bowl, the last thing the Chargers need is a first-round pick that might not even help the team.

The Chargers know that Gordon is going to help the team and flipping one year of him for a pick in the late teens/early 20s would be silly.

Gordon’s value to this team is unmatched and he opens the door for Ekeler and Jackson to be better as rotational backs with a specific role. Unless the Chargers get an established NFL piece that will help the team more than Gordon, a trade is pointless.

Because the worst-case scenario is that the two sides don’t agree to a deal, Gordon does not want to accept the franchise tag and the Chargers simply run with Ekeler and Jackson. At least in that scenario, the team will get Gordon for a Super Bowl run in 2019.

Personally, I would like to see the Los Angeles Chargers extend Melvin Gordon. Even if they don’t, he definitely should not be traded.