San Diego Chargers: Melvin Gordon an important success so far

San Diego Chargers rookie running back Melvin Gordon was criticized heavily in the preseason for dancing too often, and some wondered if he would end up being a disappointment in his first season. That would be a huge disappointment for the Chargers, because we saw just how much the offense suffered when their running game was stripped away from them due to Ryan Mathews‘s injury.

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Gordon, however, has come out strong in the first four regular season games of his career, and he’s currently sporting an average of 4.1 yards per carry and 57.0 yards per game. While those numbers seem mediocre on the surface, it’s important to realize that Gordon has actually exceeded expectations and is making the most of a less than ideal situation in front of him.

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The fact that the Chargers are third in the NFL in net yards per pass attempt helps Gordon out, but there’s more to the story when examining Gordon’s situation. Yes, the Chargers excel at spreading the ball around and have a sure-fire top-ten quarterback in Philip Rivers, but it’s worth noting that only the Dallas Cowboys have thrown less passes of at least 20 yards than the Chargers this season.

That can be a product of many things, but this is one sign pointing into the direction of offensive line struggles. Like Rivers, Gordon has been the victim of poor play up front, and injuries to King Dunlap, Orlando Franklin, and Chris Watts have only made things more difficult for the Chargers talented skill position players. I mean, just take a look at how difficult Gordon found it to run on a usually soft Cleveland Browns defense last week, as he put up just 38 yards on 12 carries.

Or you can look at this failed rushing attempt.

Some already had questions about the Chargers offensive line coming into the season despite sweeping upgrades, and it’s simply impossible to expect an elusive back who is used to- and needs- good blocking to allow his skill-set to shine to overcome some of the worst run blocking we’ve seen from any team this season.

And yet, Gordon is still averaging a respectable 4.1 yards per carry, though most of his production spawns from one big game against the Cincinnati Bengals.

We’ve seen glimpses of his playmaking ability this season, and that’s helped make up for the fact that only T.J. Yeldon and LeSean McCoy have been stuffed more often this season, as per Sporting Charts. That’s a clear indication of poor line play, and run blocking struggles have been a common criticism of both the Buffalo Bills and Jacksonville Jaguars over the past year.

That same criticism holds for the San Diego Chargers, and injuries to stars Franklin and Dunlap have prevented this team from finally solving those long-time line woes. Rivers is used to it now, but, again, it’s hard to ask a running back with Gordon’s stylistic traits to avoid being stuffed so often.

All you can do is ask him to occasional break off a big play, get more than what is in front of him, and keep his yards per carry average somewhere around 4.0 or above. He’s done all of that this season, and the numbers that best exemplify his solid work this season can be found on Pro Football Focus.

Sep 27, 2015; Minneapolis, MN, USA; San Diego Chargers running back Melvin Gordon (28) following the game against the Minnesota Vikings at TCF Bank Stadium. The Vikings defeated the Chargers 31-14. Mandatory Credit: Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports

With 2.79 yards after contact per carry and 12 missed tackles forced on the ground through four games, Gordon has been one of the best 15 running backs in the league in both categories.

His ability to break off long runs and make defenders miss have been on display, and that’s really all he can do at this point without adequate blocking in front of him. It’s hard to be consistent when you are getting blown up so often in the backfield, so at least Gordon is giving Rivers and the rest of the offense a spark.

When the Chargers linemen round into health and form and gel as a unit, then maybe we’ll see better stats from Gordon going forward. Until then, it’s important to put his stats in context by looking deeper, because he’s actually done a good job considering the circumstances so far this year.

Has he been great? No, but it’s hard to argue against the fact that MG3 is in the thick of the Rookie of the Year race, because the Chargers pass defense wouldn’t be the third-most efficient in the NFL without him giving their rushing attack some semblance of legitimacy.

We all saw what happened to Rivers and the passing attack in 2014 after both the blocking and rushing attack failed them following an injury to their feature back.

Next: The Chargers TE duo is the best in the NFL, right?

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