Chargers Daily Links: Who is your favorite underdog in franchise history?

It’s a new week at SB Nation so of course that means a new theme week! This weeks theme is “Dogs” which means two things: Literal dogs and of course, underdogs. Since I don’t have any dog content right now, I guess we’ll have to stick with the latter, less-interesting option.

For this week’s first theme post I simply want to ask “Who is your favorite underdog in Chargers team history?” This obviously refers to a player that came to the Bolts as an undrafted free agent or maybe it was a draft bust who didn’t make something of themselves with their original team, but finally found that success with the Chargers.

I’m on the younger side, so I don’t have a wealth of memories from watching this team over the years, but I don’t think I can go wrong with choosing Austin Ekeler as my favorite underdog in franchise history. There have been plenty of excellent choices you could use for this question. Antonio Gates comes to mind as a former college basketball player, or maybe Hall of Fame offensive lineman Larry Little does it for you. Either way, it’s hard to go wrong with this question.

As we all know, Ekeler signed with the Chargers back in 2017 as a UDFA from Division II Western State in Colorado. He rushed over 5,000 yards and scored over 50 touchdowns in his four-year career with the Mountaineers and managed to claw his way onto this team with his prowess on special teams and his elite work-ethic. Ekeler recently signed a four-year deal worth $24 million to stay with the team for the foreseeable future and will continue to be one of the most dynamic players on the offense.

Now it’s your turn. Let me know in the comments who your favorite “underdog” is in Chargers history.

Chargers News:

Gavino Borquez lists his 4 most under-appreciated Chargers (Chargers Wire)

Jason Reed discusses the best trade the Bolts ever made with the Buffalo Bills (Bolt Beat)

Brad Crawford highlights how former NFL WR Greg Jennings thinks the Chargers made a mistake not signing Cam Newton (247Sports)

Brent Sobleski gave the Chargers UDFA haul a “C” (Bleacher Report)

Mike Clay pegs DT Linval Joseph and OT Bryan Bulaga as two of the biggest upgrades made by a NFL team this offseason (ESPN+)

NFL News:

Maurice Moton lists the best active NFL players to not win a Super Bowl (Bleacher Report)

Bill Barnwell ranks the best and worst offseasons by NFL teams (ESPN)

NFL Experts discussed the most underrated moves by teams this offseason (ESPN+)

Michael David Smith reports on the NFL tabling discussion of incentivizing minority hires (Pro Football Talk)

Vic Tafur predicts over/under win totals for every NFL team (The Athletic)