Los Angeles Chargers: Melvin Gordon will return, here’s why

Melvin Gordon’s holdout with the Los Angeles Chargers did not end with a new contract but it will eventually lead to Gordon returning to the Chargers in 2020.

The Los Angeles Chargers‘ season has been so dreadful that it is easy to forget about Melvin Gordon‘s holdout at the beginning of the year. Instead, fans are forced to remember all of the painstaking losses, all of which were within seven points and usually had some sort of late turnover or mistake.

Whether it be throwing an interception in the endzone down by three when you are in field goal range, fumbling on the goal line or committing a costly pass interference when there was no shot of the pass being completed, the Chargers have been reinventive with the ways they have lost.

All of that took some of the attention away from Gordon’s holdout, which lasted until Week 5. With the NFL season coming into its last quarter and the Chargers practically being eliminated from the playoffs, the conversation has since re-emerged.

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Even Gordon is not sure what his future holds. He told Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times that he was unsure if he earned the contract he was initially asking for and he was unsure of whether or not he would be in Los Angeles next season or elsewhere (h/t Bleacher Report).

He did finish his quote by saying that hopefully, it would be with the Los Angeles Chargers and after everything that has happened this season, it appears more than likely that Gordon will be back in the powder blue next season.

The first reason to lead us to believe this is that Gordon will not get the contract he was requesting from the Chargers. Gordon reportedly was asking for something around $13 million per year and even reportedly turned down an offer that was around $10 million per year.

A $13 million per season contract would have tied him with David Johnson for the fourth-most expensive running back contract in the NFL.

There is no way that any team is giving him that contract. There has been even more examples why teams don’t pay running backs as Todd Gurley has not been great this season, Le’Veon Bell has not returned to form and David Johnson only has 317 rushing yards this year.

The shelf-life of a an NFL running back is short and Gordon has not done anything this year to prove he is worth that $13 million mark. He has been solid the last four games with a combined 442 yards from scrimmage and three touchdowns, but he was rusty, to say the least, prior.

In his first four, he did not have a single game with more than 32 rushing yards, had just one rushing touchdown and fumbled twice, including the game-losing fumble against the Tennessee Titans.

Gordon will be lucky to even get the $10 million that the Chargers offered him before the year. When you look at the landscape of the NFL, there really isn’t any contending-type teams that are one running back away from making noise, so the market for Gordon probably won’t be that large.

However, the Chargers already showed that they were willing to pay Gordon $10 million per season and I still think they are willing to pay Gordon a good amount for a running back. The reason for this is the struggles of Philip Rivers.

When the holdout was taking place we still were not sure what the future of the quarterback position looked like for the Chargers as there was a chance that the team could have re-signed Philip Rivers.

Rivers has struggled this season and while he still has something left to offer, it appears as it is time for both sides to move on.

What that entails for the future I am not sure, but I do think that the Chargers will draft a quarterback in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft, giving the team more money to spend as they will have a quarterback on their rookie contract.

That gives the Chargers the flexibility to sign Gordon and I think do one of two things. He will either get a contract similar to DeVonta Freeman’s, which was five years, $41.25 million.

The Chargers should start negotiations at $37.5 million over five years, paying him $7.5 million per year. The absolute highest they should go is what Freeman is currently getting, perhaps they meet in the middle at five years, $40 million.

And if Gordon is really concerned about how much he makes per season I could see the Los Angeles Chargers offered him a short-term contract worth annually, something around two-years for $23 million. This gives Gordon $11.5 million per year without there being a long-term risk.

The one reason why this could be turned down by Gordon is if he thinks he won’t get any good offers once he is a free agent. However, if he plays well for those two years he could get another contract that pays him more altogether.