What RB Austin Ekeler brings to the Washington Commanders
Breaking down what the Commanders are getting in new free agent RB Austin Ekeler
Running back Austin Ekeler was one of the first players to sign with the Washington Commanders during the extremely busy opening week of free agency. Ekeler has been one of the most productive running backs in recent years, scoring an outstanding 38 total touchdowns over the course of the 2021 and 2022 seasons (25 rushing touchdowns, 13 receiving touchdowns). However, in 2023, Ekeler had one of his worst seasons in which his yards per carry average dropped below four for the first time in his career.
Now Ekeler has already explained in his introductory press conference that he struggled with injuries last season. He opened the season against Miami with 117 rushing yards and a touchdown, with an additional 47 yards receiving before suffering a high ankle sprain that knocked him out of action for a few weeks. NFL fans will know that while high ankle sprains can be played with, it can severely limit players mobility, which hurt Ekeler’s ability to cut as sharp or burst as quickly as he typically would.
So what exactly are the Commanders getting here? Is Ekeler over his injuries and ready to be a productive piece of the offense or has he lost a step and on the decline? Let’s take a closer look:
The first thing to note with Ekeler is his role with the Commanders. With the Chargers, Ekeler was the top running back and carried the load, but did share snaps with other backs in the rotation. In Washington, it’s largely expected that Brian Robinson will remain the workhorse back and retain the bulk of the carries while Ekeler will switch to more of a third down back role. In that role, his main priorities will be as a receiver out of the backfield and as a key pass protector for whatever quarterback the Commanders draft second overall. So because of that role, I wanted to focus on Ekeler’s receiving and pass protection capabilities instead of his running.
In that third down back role in Kliff Kingsbury’s offense, Ekeler could see a lot of targets. Kingsbury likes to use versatile receiving running backs to motion outside into empty sets and have them run routes. He also likes to use them as threats out of the backfield on things like choice routes, which is something Ekeler does well.
On this play, Ekeler aligns in the backfield to the right of the quarterback in the shotgun. He runs a choice route where he arcs his release outside to get in the seam and create space to enable him to break either way. At the top of his route, Ekeler has the choice to either break inside, cut outside or sit the route down depending on the coverage he faces. On this occasion, he gets matched up one-on-one with a linebacker which is a great matchup for him. He gets the linebacker to commit outside with a little stutter fake before sharply cutting inside over the middle of the field. Ekeler breaks into wide open space for a nice easy throw and catch for a first down.
Kingsbury does like to use those choice routes to attack the middle of the field, so expect to see Ekeler running plenty of them under Kingsbury in Washington. Another way Kingsbury will look to use Ekeler is in the screen game.
These are two examples of screen passes to Ekeler from last season in his first few games back after the high ankle sprain. On the first play of the clip, Ekeler fakes a zone run to the left and sets up for a screen pass. The quarterback finds him but the offensive line fails to get out in front. Ekeler shows that despite playing with a high ankle sprain, he still has some wiggle to his game. An unblocked linebacker reads the screen and gets outside to try and make the play. Ekeler doesn’t panic and instead makes the defender miss by cutting inside to avoid him and then bursting back outside to run away from the rest of the trailing defenders. From there he sprints down the sideline and dives for the end zone, fighting through the hit of a safety to get over the line for the touchdown.
The second play of the clip is almost the exact same screen pass, but this time against Dan Quinn’s Cowboys defense a few weeks later. Ekeler gets a bit more help with the blocking this time as he gets to the edge with two blockers out in front of him. But even with that, Ekeler does a nice job staying patient and making the most of his blockers. He slows his run down and allows an offensive lineman to get in front of him. He then sets up the block for the lineman by cutting inside to get the defender to commit inside before suddenly bouncing back outside. Ekeler then makes another cut to get back inside and work his way down inside the five yard line before the defense eventually brings him down.
While Ekeler lacked true breakaway speed over a long distance that he may have had when he was younger, you can see he still has the ability to make a defender miss in space and also has the savvy to set up blocks and maximize the gain each time he touches the ball. That’s a positive sign for the Commanders that Ekeler can be productive in a third down back role here.
Now before moving on to looking at Ekeler in pass protection, I wanted to highlight one other part of being a pass catcher as a running back. Something Jay Gruden used to heap praise on Chris Thompson for was how quickly he would check his protection assignment and then get out into his route. Running backs that have routes out of the backfield often also have pass protection assignments they have to check first. Some guys can be slow with that part, making them late to get out into the route. Getting out quickly is important because each route can play a significant role in impacting the defense.
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