Will Melvin Gordon play for the Los Angeles Chargers in 2019?

We feel bad for Melvin Gordon. He’s been a great player and finds himself in a losing situation. Will he play for the Los Angeles Chargers this season?

We have to admit something, and its an unpopular opinion. We feel bad for Melvin Gordon. He wants a new contract or a trade and won’t report to the Los Angeles Chargers until he gets it.

We know the arguments against such a feeling. In the most basic sense, the dude is a world famous, hyper rich athlete who plays a game he loves for a living. More specifically, Gordon is a talented player on a Super Bowl-contending team. He deserves no one’s pity. But after the way Le’Veon Bell‘s situation resolved itself and now the stance Gordon is taking with the Los Angeles Chargers, we have gotten to the point of no return. We feel bad for him.

Will Melvin Gordon play for the Los Angeles Chargers in 2019?

Two brothers from New York, Dan Salem and Todd Salem, debate Melvin Gordon in today’s NFL Sports Debate.

Todd Salem:

Maybe this is all posturing on Gordon’s part. He is properly playing the business game with his franchise, and there will be no ill will in the end. That’s actually how it seemed with Bell. In my opinion, Bell has no grudge against Pittsburgh. If anything, it is the other way around. With Gordon, it may turn out the same.

But instead, I get the feeling that he believes he is being genuinely disrespected and undervalued. Gordon really believes (from my interpretation of events) that he is being slighted and must make a stance. And it’s kind of sad.

Bell sitting out the entire season did nothing to change the narrative surrounding the value of NFL running backs. Gordon doing the same will also do nothing. The evidence is too rampant in the other direction. Running backs simply don’t have the value these guys think they should.

This isn’t a case of players hyping themselves up too much, like when every player guesses his Madden rating is higher than it is. This is something else. It’s an entire positional group that has been taken down by the way the sport is played. There is no turning back. Gordon is simply up a creek with no paddle (other than all the opening salvos about him being rich and famous and whatnot).

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James Conner‘s success completely embarrassed and undercut Bell’s leverage. Then Todd Gurley became the latest example of when paying a running back goes horribly wrong. Gurley reportedly has an arthritic knee. He already was supplanted by guy-off-the-street in the Rams’ playoff games last year and may never be a bell-cow back again. And his massive extension hasn’t even kicked in yet!

Other than complete blindness to your own self-worth, how can Gordon possibly believe he will get his own massive contract extension? Maybe the fact that the other LA team made such a mistake is his hope.

I feel bad because he seems to have that hope, because he’s so misguided and unable to understand why his position isn’t valued in today’s game. That doesn’t even factor in the fact that Gordon specifically hasn’t been a healthy or incredibly efficient player in his career.

If Gordon gets back on the field, he could be a part of a title favorite this season. Instead, he may voluntarily miss the whole thing because he wishes it was 2004.

Dan Salem:

Someone just slapped some reality into NFL running backs with a large wet noodle that smells like fish left out on the kitchen counter. The only way it makes business sense for an NFL team to dish out a big money contract is if the player has longevity, or they are the face of the franchise. This is why quarterbacks get all the love and why wide receivers are getting deals. Every other position is on notice.

Melvin Gordon is expendable. Los Angeles is not going to pay him, but some team that hasn’t seen him in practice or in the trainer’s room will pony up the dough. I don’t believe Gordon has any other options right now, so I too can feel some pity for his situation.

As a running back, he is at his very best during the first five years of his career. Yet those five seasons are under a rookie deal that pays him significantly less than he can earn later on. But no one wants to pay a running back after that fifth season, because they are no longer at their best. This is a classic Catch-22 that has no real resolution.

Teams can’t pay rookie running backs big money. This was a major problem that got corrected. Quarterbacks in particular were getting paid for potential and everyone got burned. Perhaps rookie deals need a clause that kicks in after year two.

If a player, running backs in particular, is ranked in the top 10 at his position after his second season in the league, then he is guaranteed a salary bump up to the league average at the position. Or he gets guaranteed bonuses, an opt-out clause after year three, or something that gets him paid like the top 10 player that he currently is.

Gordon has been a top-10 running back, injuries and all. He has made Los Angeles better. But the Chargers would be foolish to dish out big bucks for him going forward. The risk is too high and Gordon and his team know it. This is why he wants a trade. He needs a new deal from a desperate team that is less familiar with his history as a player. Sitting out the season preserves his abilities.

Le’Veon Bell got paid and got what he needed by doing so. He got a fresh start on a needy team that could pay him his value. Who knows if he’ll ever earn that value in the future, but running backs get paid on past performance. That is how the system currently works.