Chargers Will Not Extend Melvin Gordon In 2019

It’s unclear what will happen next with Melvin Gordon, but we now know one thing. The Chargers’ running back won’t be getting the extension he wants from Los Angeles this season.

Chargers GM Tom Telesco announced Sunday the team is postponing extension talks until after the season, according to Gilbert Manzano of the OC Register (Twitter link). The Chargers have been negotiating with Gordon this summer, although obviously they didn’t offer anything Gordon and his representatives were willing to accept. We heard back in July that the two sides were about $2-3MM apart in talks.

Those talks will now be tabled until the end of the season, if they’re ever brought back again at all. “When or if Melvin reports, he’ll play this season under his current contract, and we’ll just revisit it after the season,” Telesco said, via Eric D. Williams of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Telesco is playing hardball, and clearly isn’t going to budge. Just yesterday, word leaked that the Chargers had given the Wisconsin product permission to seek a trade.

That same report also indicated that Gordon hadn’t ruled out returning and playing out the final year of his rookie deal. He’s currently set to make $5.605MM under the fifth-year option. Of course even if Gordon is able to find a team willing to trade for him, they’d have to offer compensation that the Chargers want. He doesn’t have too much leverage at the moment, since if he doesn’t play this season his contract would simply toll to 2020.

Gordon had by far the best year of his career in 2018, and now he’s trying to cash in. The Chargers have remained firm in their stance and haven’t backed down, and appear content to enter the season with Austin Ekeler and second-year player Justin Jackson atop the depth chart. It’ll be interesting to see what Gordon does next, and how much time he’s willing to miss.

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