Fantasy Football Analysis: Chargers Select Omarion Hampton

The Chargers continued to invest capital in their offense under Jim Harbaugh and Greg Roman, selecting Omarion Hampton at No. 22 overall.

Let's examine Hampton's 2025 fantasy football outlook and Dynasty value.

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Omarion Hampton 2025 Fantasy Football Outlook

Hampton is coming off two impressive seasons at North Carolina.

After turning 282 touches into 1,726 total yards and 16 touchdowns in 2023, he followed that up with 2,033 yards and 17 touchdowns on 319 touches this past season.

Hampton increased his yards per touch every year in college.

Even with North Carolina taking a significant step back this past year after losing Drake Maye, Hampton improved his efficiency (6.4 yards per touch) and carried the offense.

He accounted for 38.5% of his team's yardage, trailing only Ashton Jeanty and Kaleb Johnson in that department among backs in this class.

Only Jeanty handled a higher rate of his offensive touches than Hampton’s 43.9%.

If you read the article on Jeanty, you may have noticed that Hampton had one of the best collegiate seasons in generating yards when they were unavailable.

He was not as impressive this past season in generating yards after contact as he was in 2023, but he still produced 3.6 yards after contact per rush (only three running backs had a higher rate with as many runs) with 60.9% of his yardage coming after contact (11th in this class).

Hampton is a capable pass catcher on prototypical targets for the position.

He caught more passes for higher yards per reception than in the previous season every year in college, catching 38 passes for 373 yards (9.8 Y/R) this past year.

Hampton accounted for 16.5% of his team’s receptions, trailing only Cam Skattebo for backs in this class.

Hampton can improve pass protection, allowing a 7.6% pressure rate, which is where Najee Harris can thwart him in year one snaps.

That said, Hampton has a three-down profile to be an NFL workhorse.

If you were building a running back, he would have the physical profile of Hampton, who helped his cause tremendously at the NFL Combine.

At 5-foot-11 and 221 pounds, Hampton ran a 4.46 40-yard dash (87th percentile adjusted for weight) while posting a 96th percentile explosion score (vertical plus broad jump) in the jumping drills.

The Chargers needed to revamp this backfield.

They were able to cobble together mid-range output from their backfield last season.

Their running backs combined for 1,514 yards on the ground (17th) but posted a 36.2% success rate (23rd), while 20.9% of their runs failed to gain yardage (28th).

They were not settling on that production this offseason, as both backs who had 100-plus rushes on their roster last season (J.K. Dobbins and Gus Edwards) remain on the open market approaching the draft.

Harris only signed a one-year contract, and Hampton can push him immediately in year one since Harris was being pushed for touches by an undrafted (but very good to be fair) player in Jaylen Warren.

Harris has cleared 1,000 yards from scrimmage in all four of his seasons in the NFL, accruing counting stats based on handling a high workload and not missing a game yet at this point in his career.

Still, out of 46 running backs with 100 or more runs in 2024, Harris ranked:

34th in EPA per rush (-0.11)
42nd in success rate (32.3%)
30th in runs that failed to gain yardage (19%)
40th in rate of runs to result in a first down or touchdown (19%)
34th in yards before contact per rush (1.06)
31st in yards after contact per rush (2.90)

On a positive note, he had runs of 10 or more yards on 11.4% of his rushes (20th), which was a career high.

The Chargers' short-term bet is that Harris can improve efficiency behind a better offensive line and in a better offense overall.

Still, the draft investment into Hampton strongly signals that he is the future bellcow for this offense.

We know Jim Harbaugh and Greg Roman will run the football, and this offensive line is in a good place, paired with an established quarterback.