Fantasy Football Stock Watch: Buy Low, Do Not Panic on Omarion Hampton
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The beauty and the beast of fantasy football is the fact that you never know until you know. We can speculate all preseason long as to how a player will perform, but until you see them hit the field, you never know for sure. Some players will pop, and some will burrow. As for a player triggering panic alert right now, that may be Omarion Hampton. The rookie running back has had his work cut out for him, but has nothing to show for it. Is it time to panic? Let's dissect the matter.
Omarion Hampton Stats
Through two career NFL games, Hampton has 23 Attempts for 72 Yards and 0 Touchdowns. His receiving game also been limited to just 3 Receptions for 14 Yards. The makes him fall outside the Top 40 running backs, or among the worst NFL starters. He also had a fumble on Monday Night, although it did get charged to Justin Herbert after the fact. Good news for Omarion Hampton is that he has outcarried Najee Harris 23-9. Hampton owners will hope to see that snap-split remain.
Rock Ya-Sin prevented Omarion Hampton’s ADP from climbing 5+ slots tomorrow pic.twitter.com/4sferjQPoa
— Sean Koerner (@The_Oddsmaker) August 1, 2025
Dissecting the Chargers Rushing Offense
This question must answer is, why is this run game struggling? The Chargers were very efficient at running the ball in 2025. What is the issue? You can point to the offensive line being without Rashawn Slater, but they have good win rates. The Chargers offensive line ranks 11th is pass blocking win rate, and 16th in run blocking win rate. Is it not elite, but is not terrible by any means.
To dive into some Next Gen Stats, Omarion Hampton does rank 8th in Efficiency among the 50 qualified running backs. However, he rates 3rd worst in Yards Over Expected and 22nd is Time Spent Behind Line of Scrimmage. What this implies is that Hampton is a east-to-west runner, and perhaps doing too much. It also implies that the Chargers are getting beat off the edges and collapsing on Hampton (Joe Alt, Trey Pipkins rate average through two games).
Pass-blocking grades through 2 weeks of football:
— ChargersWorld (@ChargersWorld) September 16, 2025
🔥 Joe Alt - 1st among all tackles
🔥 Mekhi Becton - 1st among all guards
The run blocking needs to improve but these two have been protecting Justin Herbert immensely. pic.twitter.com/YcB8lHuAQp
Najee Harris, a more north-to-south runner is averaging 3.7 yards per carry, in which a bunch came against stacked boxes in late on Monday Night, resulting in a couple counter-active yardage losses in low leverage.
I can continue to run deeply through countless statistics, but I have come to one conclusion. That is the fact that Hampton is just not playing great football. The team can block better. They can draw up better plays. Ultimately, the player must play better. Hampton grades out as the 22nd ranked running back (out of 29, min 20 carries). He is also yet to be leveraged in the pass game with just four total targets. This was meant to be a strength of his.
Final Verdict
The Chargers seem to be struggling at running the ball as a whole. In limited carries, Najee Harris is not doing much better. This team has also found such vast success in their passing offense that they have ran as a compliment to the pass. This is something that is usually reversed. That fact actually gives me optimism going forward. (Herbert is averaging 280 Yards per Game with 5 Touchdowns).
As the weeks go on, expect Greg Roman to switch up the game plan to work in Hampton and Harris more effectively. The run game has not been high-leverage, but they will not give up on Hampton in favor of Harris. This will be a work in progress. I foresee October being a big breakout month for the Tar Heel rookie.
Do Not Sell Omarion Hampton. Hold For Better Days Ahead
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Thomas Carelli is a sportswriter based on Northern New Jersey. He is a massive New York Jets and Mets fan, but that is not where is sports fandom stops. He loves to watch and play golf, all things football, baseball, and much more. If he can watch it, he will. Thomas graduated from William Paterson University in 2018 with a Bachelor's Degree in Sport Management. He spent 4 years working at a local golf course, volunteered past PGA events, and spent some part-time experience with the New York Jets events team. His passions for sport runs deep and his articles show for it.