Is Los Angeles Chargers rookie RB Omarion Hampton going too low in fantasy football drafts?
Ladies and (probably mostly) gentlemen, football is back! Overreaction season is fully upon us, with rookies and guys with unrealized upside alike getting the training camp and coach-speak boost.
Whether it’s New England Patriots rookie RB Tre’veyon Henderson catching wheel routes against coaches or half of X forgetting what a walkthrough looks like in the case of the Chicago Bears, this is such a beautiful and frustrating time of the year. Guys like Dont’e Thornton are drawing Calvin Johnson comps, and some guy named Jacory Croskey-Merritt is now the internet’s favorite sleeper running back. Ultimately, what most of these guys will look like is uncertain.
What is certain, however, is how much work Los Angeles Chargers rookie RB Omarion Hampton is looking to moonwalk into following JK Dobbins’ departure this offseason and Najee Harris having an unfortunate fireworks accident. Despite this workload, Omarion Hampton is still going too low in fantasy football drafts (ADP of 29).
Omarion Hampton is Going Too Low in Fantasy Football Drafts
The Chargers already had one of the most desirable situations when it comes to fantasy runners. Now that most of that work likely falls on a first-round running back that’s a chiseled 6-0, 220 pounds, the fantasy community is rightfully salivating over Hampton. In my own evaluation of Hampton as a prospect, he unsurprisingly graded as my RB2 in the class. I was a big fan of his game, not just as a gap/power runner, but as a thumper in pass protection.
Hampton wasn’t a zero in the pass game either; he caught 73 balls in his college career, putting him in the same range as the aforementioned Henderson in career catches. There is a very real chance that Hampton flirts with 300 touches, as ESPN’s Eric Moody had Hampton projected for over 250 touches before Harris’s accident. The Chargers vacated nearly 300 RB touches from 2024, and although Greg Roman and Harbaugh don’t have the best history of using just one runner, Hassan Haskins and Kimani Vidal are not genuinely eating into Hampton’s workload.
All this sounds like someone you’d have to spend one of your first two picks on in a draft, right? Wrong, Hampton is currently going around pick 29 in consensus ADP. If played right, you could get two elite starters prior to claiming Hampton at a great value pick in your fantasy football draft. RB14 ADP is simply too low for someone the entire industry sees as a workhorse for a team that should, at worst, be reasonably competitive. He’s currently going in the same range as Kenneth Walker, James Conner and Chuba Hubbard.
Walker is awesome when healthy, but health has been a consistent issue for him. Conner runs like an F-350 dually, but one that has about 500,000 miles on the engine. Hubbard is exciting as a PPR option and should be the top dog with Carolina, but who knows if the Panthers fully take the next step.
Compared to these three, Hampton is much more insulated as a pick. If he remains healthy, he will get all the work that Harbaugh and Roman can reasonably give him.
To me, this puts him at the very top of tier three, maybe even into tier two, just because we aren’t sure if he gets much work in the pass game or not. That said, being successful in fantasy is about making good bets based on context, and based on Hampton’s context, I see no reason why he can’t contend right away for low-end RB1 numbers, with mid-range RB1 a possibility.
