The Chargers and running back Melvin Gordon have not made progress on a new contract, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Per Schefter, Gordon still wants to return for Week 1 of the regular season, but will sit out if no deal is reached.
As Dan Graziano of ESPN.com recently explained, Gordon can’t sit out the entire season — or at least, he can’t if he wants to become a free agent next spring. If Gordon doesn’t report by November 29, he won’t be eligible to play during the 2019 campaign. At that point, his contract would toll: his $5.605MM salary would simply carry over to 2020, and he’d remain under the contractual control of the Chargers.
Gordon has both said that he’d like to remain with Los Angeles and formally requested a trade. Meanwhile, “mounting pessimism” exists that Gordon and the Chargers will strike any sort of deal before the regular season gets underway. The Chargers are reportedly offering Gordon something in the neighborhood of $10MM annually, but the former first-round pick is looking for an additional $2-3MM per season.
Gordon, 26, has averaged 907 yards and seven touchdowns on the ground during his four-year career. He’s averaged 46 catches, 395 yards, and three scores via the passing game during that same timeframe. The Wisconsin product was named to the Pro Bowl in both 2016 and 2018.
Pay the dude
Why? He’s under contract. How about he just lives up to that instead?
He has a right to sit out, and gamble that he gets a new contract. The Chargers also have a right to do what they think is right. He is a lot more of a valuable employee than the two of us. Therefore he has a lot more options than we do, when it comes to his “job”.
He really doesn’t. You and I can go work for whichever Enployer us offers a contract – Gordon can only work for the team who he is signed to currently, or stop working and hope he goes whenever else the team sends him.
More valuable? Absolutely. More options? Not even close.
Hey if you’re not interested in extending just demand a trade or bell the season.
He can’t Bell the season, he still has up to 2 years left on his rookie contract and if he sits out the year, when he comes back he’ll still have 2 years left with the Chargers. Bell was a free agent that was being franchise tagged.
The Charger always seem to make things harder than they have to be. Is it because they feel they have to be as dramatic as division rivals to be considered relevant?
Let him sit until October then trade him to Buffalo