Chargers met with USC RB Travis Dye

The Chargers have used an NFL Draft Day 3 pick on a running back in each of the last three seasons. Unfortunately neither have shown enough up to this point to keep the Chargers from potentially taking another in this year’s draft, but there’s still plenty of other needs along the roster that the Bolts may end up trying to snag one or two as free agents following the draft.

One name to keep an eye on is local product Travis Dye who played four seasons with the Oregon Ducks before transferring to play for the Trojans of USC in 2022. Per NFL insider Aaron Wilson, the Chargers met with Dye at their local pro day where he went through positional drills and meetings. Dye finally felt healthy enough to run a 40 and just recently recorded a 4.46 electronically with his trainer.

In his final year with the Ducks, Dye led the team with 1271 yards and 16 touchdowns across 14 games with 12 starts. He also showed some receiving chops by leading the Ducks with 46 receptions for 402 yards.

In his lone season at USC, Dye was named a Second-Team All-Pac 12 selection after leading the team with 884 rushing yards and nine touchdowns while being held to 10 games played due to injury.

NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein believes Dye’s ability on third downs will help his chances at making an NFL roster, but otherwise believes him to be a priority free agent pick up. His recent 40 time shows he has the speed NFL teams desire, but Zierlein notes that his functional strength and speed were lacking during his pro day workout.

At the end of the day, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Brandon Staley attempt to reunite Justin Herbert with a running back he played two seasons with at Oregon.