Marquee Free Agent Named Chargers' Breakout Player of 2024

The Chargers finally got rid of Brandon Staley this offseason – bringing in Jim Harbaugh and a whole slew of new players.

One of those additions could be in line to have a career year in LA, possibly making Chargers fans forget about missing Austin Ekeler. 

J.K. Dobbins has played in just nine games over the past two seasons, but he’s in a prime position to have a huge year if he can stay on the field and was recently named as the Chargers' potential breakout player of the year by USA Today.

Dobbins Could Have First 1,000-Yard Season in 2024

The list of injuries that Dobbins has accrued during his time in football is a bit staggering for a 25-year-old.

In three NFL seasons, he has torn his ACL, meniscus, LCL, hamstring, and his Achilles tendon. 

However, Dobbins is confident that his injury woes are behind him. 

"It's been a storm the past two years, having great games, and then, the next thing you know, hurt,” Dobbins told reporters in April. “Got the injury-prone [label] out there, but I think that the storm is over with. I think that I'm going to take off now. There will be no setbacks. The injury-prone thing will be gone, out of the window, again."

If that’s the case, he should have every opportunity to have his best season. The Chargers and Ekeler parted ways mostly due to LA wanting to go run-heavy this season.

And even though the team also signed Gus Edwards, Dobbins is clearly the most talented runner on the roster and should be in line for the majority of touches.

“The Chargers want to run the ball at a high level under Jim Harbaugh, and part of building out the running back room was signing Dobbins,” writes Gavino Borquez of Chargers Wire. “Following a promising rookie season in 2020 when he averaged 5.8 yards per carry and totaled over 800 rushing yards, Dobbins was derailed by injuries, both to his ACL and Achilles.”

For context, the 49ers averaged 491.25 rushing attempts per season in four years under Harbaugh. 

Seeing as how the NFL season was one game shorter back then, we can probably expect that to be the floor this season.

Even if Edwards reaches 200 rushes for the first time in his NFL career, that leaves plenty of room for Dobbins to also hit that mark. 

And considering that Dobbins has averaged 5.8 yards per rush for his career, he could have his worst year as a runner and still EASILY clear 1,000 yards.

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