Omarion Hampton Week 9 Outlook Is Brighter Than Ever Thanks to New Mike McDaniel Quote

The Los Angeles Chargers still have not won a single game to start the 2026 NFL season, with a major part of that being because of this team's offense under what was once the best hire of the offseason, Mike McDaniel.

This offense is currently the worst in the league by points scored, with specifically the rushing offense being ranked 18th in rushing yards per game. While 18th would be okay if your team were a pass-heavy unit, this team was supposed to be built on the run to support the pass. The passing offense ranks T-26 in passing yards per game.

With such an awful offensive unit, you would think that the team's first-round second-year running back has been hurt or benched. You would be more correct to call what has gone on as a benching. This is now expected to change.

Omarion Hampton's Soft-Benching Should be Finally Over

Omarion Hampton, the Bolt's 2025 first-round pick, had an injury-plagued rookie season, but had enough flashes during the year to show why the team selected him with the pick they did. Going into year two, this season, Hampton was praised to be a possible league-leading rusher under McDaniel.

Like everything else, nothing but disappointment has occurred, as Hampton started off the season rushing the ball well, with two games with a touchdown, one of those having over 100 scrimmage yards. Unfortunately, in those games, he fumbled the football, yielding a massive decline in playing time since. He went from around 60% of the offensive snaps to around 35%. It is safe to say it was a soft benching for the former first-round pick.

This year, he has a 3.5 yards-per-carry average, not inspiring much confidence for his future. While his vision has declined in this wide-zone offense, he has been getting next to no blocking and movement in the run game, not helping his case and the entire offense's case in general.

Now that the team continues to lose, it seems that McDaniel has finally given up on the running back by committee idea, hopefully giving the lion's share of the workload to Hampton for the foreseeable future.

McDaniel said in today's presser: "We've had some strong consideration on adjusting the exact flow...I'm excited about someone dictating the rotation...O's had a really great week of prep"

Chargers OC Mike McDaniel on HC Jim Harbaugh indicating Omarion Hampton will get more touches: "We've had some strong consideration on adjusting the exact flow"

"I'm excited about someone dictating the rotation"

"O's had a really great week of prep"
— Alex Insdorf (@alexinsdorf99) November 5, 2026

So, if you are a fantasy owner of Hampton, it may be time to finally consider taking him off your bench and starting him once again. If you are not, it could be worth trading for him while he's a buy-low candidate.

Outside of fantasy, hopefully this workload increase will allow Hampton to find his rhythm and confidence in this offense, giving more excitement for this year while having something to build on for next.

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