{"id":297281,"date":"2023-10-26T17:25:16","date_gmt":"2023-10-26T17:25:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportstons.com\/?p=297281"},"modified":"2023-10-26T17:25:16","modified_gmt":"2023-10-26T17:25:16","slug":"austin-ekeler-explains-frustration-with-chargers-2-4-start-its-my-job-to-go-play-well","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportstons.com\/nfl\/austin-ekeler-explains-frustration-with-chargers-2-4-start-its-my-job-to-go-play-well\/","title":{"rendered":"Austin Ekeler explains frustration with Chargers&#x27; 2-4 start: &#x27;It&#x27;s my job to go play well&#x27;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>At 2-4, the Chargers are headed toward a dark place.<\/p>\n<p>Their defense hasn&#8217;t given them a ton of chances to win games. And the Los Angeles offense is sputtering as of late, especially following the loss of receiver Mike Williams.<\/p>\n<p>One of their most important players, running back Austin Ekeler, was asked recently if the team still had faith in coach Brandon Staley. Ekeler responded quickly and succinctly: &#8220;We have no choice, right?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Given time to consider his reaction and the message it may have sent, Ekeler attempted to clarify.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think the clip got taken out of context,&#8221; Ekeler explained Wednesday, per NFL Network&#8217;s Bridget Condon. &#8220;It doesn&#8217;t matter how I feel, like, what matters is I have to go out and do my job. It&#8217;s my job to go play well, and then that will [in turn] make Staley look even better.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It doesn&#8217;t matter. It doesn&#8217;t matter how I feel about it. I don&#8217;t give a damn about how I feel. I&#8217;m not spending one ounce of my energy thinking about how I feel because it doesn&#8217;t matter. What matters is I have to go execute. And if I don&#8217;t feel like I did that at a high level, I can&#8217;t think about anything besides that. And so that&#8217;s where I&#8217;m coming from, where it&#8217;s like, how do you feel about Staley? I don&#8217;t have an opinion about that. Because I gotta make sure I do my job first.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2>          <span>            Related Links          <\/span>        <\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>              Week 8 NFL picks: Bills unanimously taken over Bucs on Thursday night; Bengals or 49ers on Sunday?&#xD;&#xD;            <\/li>\n<li>              NFL RB Index, Week 8: Top five 2024 free agent running backs            <\/li>\n<li>              NFL Fantasy 2023 Start &#x27;Em, Sit &#x27;Em: Running backs for Week 8            <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Ekeler doesn&#8217;t exactly have the best relationship with the Chargers. He requested permission to seek a trade during the offseason after contract negotiations failed to produce an offer that would satisfy his desires, and for a period in the spring, it appeared as if their time together would soon be over. Ekeler eventually agreed to a revised contract that added incentives to his deal, but only after realizing the Chargers&#8217; compensation expectations made a trade nearly impossible to negotiate.<\/p>\n<p>Since then, Ekeler has appeared in only half of Los Angeles&#8217; six games. He&#8217;s broken 100 rushing yards just once, and in the last two weeks, he&#8217;s posted his lowest scrimmage yards total over a two-game span in the last five seasons. In a contract year, Ekeler isn&#8217;t being featured nearly as much as most would expect in the Chargers&#8217; offense, which means he&#8217;s watching his earning power dwindle alongside the team&#8217;s playoff hopes.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s reasonable to expect most anyone to be upset by these circumstances, but as Ekeler suggested in his initial comments, he&#8217;s essentially helpless, subjected to the whims of a coaching staff that very well could be gone by the end of 2023, especially if things don&#8217;t improve in the next month. His explanation delivered to Condon didn&#8217;t exactly clear the air, instead just detailing why he&#8217;s frustrated with both his own performance and his situation.<\/p>\n<p>The good news is that Ekeler and the Chargers have another opportunity to get right Sunday against the Chicago Bears. We&#8217;ll see if this is the start of a great turnaround or just a continuation of the same frustration that led the Chargers to this point after seven weeks.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/news\/austin-ekeler-explains-frustration-with-chargers-2-4-start-play-well\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At 2-4, the Chargers are headed toward a dark place. Their defense hasn&#8217;t given them a ton of chances to <span class=\"more-text\">&hellip;<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297280,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Austin Ekeler explains frustration with Chargers&#x27; 2-4 start: &#x27;It&#x27;s my job to go play well&#x27; - Sportstons<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportstons.com\/nfl\/austin-ekeler-explains-frustration-with-chargers-2-4-start-its-my-job-to-go-play-well\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Austin Ekeler explains frustration with Chargers&#x27; 2-4 start: &#x27;It&#x27;s my job to go play well&#x27; - Sportstons\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"At 2-4, the Chargers are headed toward a dark place. 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