Los Angeles Chargers Daily Links: Chargers receiving corps is deep

Austin Ekeler can replace Melvin Gordon’s production if holdout carries into the season - Austin Gayle
Running into loaded boxes over the past two seasons, Ekeler generated positive EPA on 27-of-63 carries (42.9%) — a strong number across a small sample size that ranks 10th among the 62 backs with at least 50 carries against loaded boxes in 2017 and 2018 combined. Gordon generated positive EPA on 77-of-216 (35.7%) runs against loaded boxes in the same two-year span, ranking 24th among the 42 NFL running backs with at least 100 attempts against loaded boxes.

NFL receiving corps rankings: All 32 teams entering 2019 - PFF Analysis Team
Third-year Clemson product Mike Williams took a huge step forward in 2018, earning an impressive 80.5 overall grade across 732 offensive snaps in his sophomore campaign. The oft-injured Hunter Henry needs to stay healthy to legitimize Los Angeles’ spot on this list, but he has earned an 88.5 overall grade and a 90.0 receiving grade across the 1,185 snaps he has seen the field in his career. And Austin Ekeler, potentially the team’s top running back if Melvin Gordon holds out, has earned high receiving grades across his short NFL career, as well.

PFF projects win totals, division title probability and Super Bowl odds for each team in the AFC West - Eric Eager & George Chahrouri
The reason this is Rivers is that he’s been an NFL quarterback for the last three years while last season’s MVP Pat Mahomes has only had one season (plus a random game) to accumulate wins above replacement (he did accumulate enough to be #2 over the past three seasons).

PFF ranks the top-10 cornerbacks ahead of the 2019 NFL season - PFF Analysis Team
No NFL cornerback has earned a higher coverage grade over the last three seasons than Hayward (91.9). Since joining the Bolts in 2016, Hayward has allowed just 125 receptions from 236 targets for 1,782 yards, 80 first downs and nine touchdowns, while he’s also logged 56 forced incompletions —the third-most of any cornerback in that period. Among the 111 cornerbacks targeted 100 or more times since 2016, Hayward ranks third in forced incompletion percentage (23.7%), ninth in passer rating allowed (71.0) and eighth in completion percentage allowed (53.0%).

Fantasy football sleepers: Tight ends capable of rising based on ADP - Daniel Kelley
The next tier, again likely without debate, is Howard, Henry, and Evan Engram. Forcing those into other tiers just for the sake of tier consistency with the other pieces didn’t seem worth it. So the debate here is which of the second group are most likely to climb to the first, and I would argue these two have the advantage over Engram and his deteriorating quarterback. We’ve seen what the ceiling of a Chargers tight end is, and it’s immense. Meanwhile, Howard is still part of one of the league’s pass-heaviest offenses, with two primary receiving pieces from last year gone now, and has been a monster on a per-game basis in his career.

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