Fantasy Football Daily - Fantasy Points Podcast EP 4: Los Angeles Chargers RB Austin Ekeler

Episode Date: August 21, 2023

LA Chargers running back and fantasy superstar Austin Ekeler (@AustinEkeler) chops it up with Joe Dolan (@FG_Dolan) and Trey Kamberling (@TreyKamberling) to discuss the Chargers' new offense, his complements in the Chargers' backfield, and more! Want to join a high-stakes dynasty league -- or any other high-stakes league? All new FFPC users get $25 off their first FFPC league of $35 or more, including dynasty orphans, using our affiliate link: https://myffpc.com/cms/public?affid=fantasypoints FANTASY POINTS PROJECTIONS ARE LIVE FOR ALL STANDARD AND PREMIUM SUBSCRIBERS! Interested in playing Best Ball in 2023? There's no better place than Underdog Fantasy. Use our code FANTASYPTS to sign up for a new account at Underdog, and not only will you get a 100% deposit match up to $100... but you'll get a Fantasy Points Standard subscription for only $5! https://www.fantasypoints.com/underdog --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fantasy-points-podcast/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome back to the Fantasy Points Podcast. My name is Joe Dolan, and I'm with Trey Camberling, our director of social media. And we have a really special episode for you today. I'm sure I've said that before. And I'm sure I've said the part about saying that before before. But this one is legitimately a milestone for us because we have a first round fantasy pick on the podcast today. I drafted him like 45 minutes ago in an underdog draft. His name is Austin Eckler.

You well know him from the Los Angeles Chargers. and he is somebody, Trey, who if not in the fantasy football space, certainly has a future in the media space. But it was great to spend 15 minutes of our day with him as part of what's been an absolutely massive month, massive offseason, a massive week of fantasy points podcast and the content that we've put up at Fantasy Points with, just some really primo guests right now.

I mean, it's actually kind of weird that I'm hosting this podcast with some of the guests that we've had, this week. But I know you've been posting through a lot on our YouTube channel and in the Fantasy Points podcast feed. As a matter of fact, we had Adam Schaefter a little bit earlier. I went last week at this point, we had Adam Schaefter on the pod dropping lots of nuggets with John Hanson. I mean, it's been pretty busy here at Fantasy Points. Yeah, I mean, you're getting, if you're a Fantasy Points subscriber or a Fantasy Points follower, you're getting in a six-day stretch, a Hanson's Hintz episode with Adam Schaefter and a Fantasy

Points Podcast episode with Austin Echler. I mean, it doesn't get better than that as far as guests are concerned. So we've been putting in the work all summer to build this up. And, you know, it almost happened faster than maybe we even thought it would happen with this podcast. But, yeah, Austin, as good on the mic as he is on the field, it was amazing talking to him. And, yeah, root and form.

I have been an Austin Echler guy for a long, long time back to when I kept him in a keeper league for $1 when Melvin Gordon was still in the backfield. So he's one of my favorite players of all time. And yeah, just an awesome interview. Yeah. So look, the one thing I want you to do, Trey, you tell me you don't get Starstruck. You said you've gotten you've gotten Starstruck twice in your life because you work for the Utah Jazz for a while. And obviously, if you're around guys like who are as big stars as NBA players, literally and figuratively, if you said you've gotten, I don't think you got Starstruck on this podcast with Austin, but I do.

do want to delve into the two times you yourself, Trey Camberling, have been starstruck in real life. Yeah, so the first one's easy to explain. Everyone will understand. I was an intern with the Charlotte Hornets, and I was face-to-face with Michael Jordan in the hallway. So that one, you know, Mike's different. Mike's different.

I've seen LeBron. I've seen KD. I've seen all the guys. I know a lot of the jazz players pretty well. Donovan Mitchell, Rudy Gobert, Joe Ingalls, George Nyang was there when I was there. Iowa State guy. That's my squad.

But yeah, a lot of guys I've spent a lot of time with. But when you see Michael in person, it's just a different vibe. And then the second time, which I know Joe loves this, but I was out in San Diego, having a nice lunch for a bachelor party and who rides by on their bicycle, but Big Ed from 90-day fiancé, Big Ed in the flesh. And I turned to all my buddies, guys were a little bit older than me. And I said, guys, I'm pretty sure that's Big Ed. And they were like, who the fuck is Big Ed?

And I said, Big Ed, you don't know Big Ed? And he drove by him. I'm like, I saw him. It was like, it was almost like when you think you see a UFO. You're like, no, I didn't really see a UFO. That, but, you know, shooting. So what was it? You know, he came back and he sat at the table next to us at dinner.

And then they had helicopters out flying over. You know, there was some type of situation going on in the ocean. And my buddy Kirby turned to him and had a full conversation. When Kirby, you know, kind of, he's a blue collar guy. He didn't, you know, doesn't know, 90 day. fiance or Big Ed, and they just kind of chopped it up for a good couple of minutes. But yeah, Michael Jordan and Big Ed, those are the two guys that kind of threw me off, made me a little bit flustered.

That is, that that's about as amazing as it gets. Dude, by the way, I didn't know anything about Big Ed, but when I told my sisters that story, they absolutely lost their minds. They're just like, oh, Big Ed! I know about Darsen Stace now. I know those two, but I didn't know Big Ed. I did recognize them when I saw a picture of them. I can imagine just Michael, like I'm imagining melting into a puddle just thinking about being next to Michael Jordan just because of like the aura that he carries.

Even if I don't plan on saying a word to him, I'm not a guy who's going to go like, oh, Mr. Jordan, Mr. Jordan. You know, I'm not bad. I would just be like scared to be in his presence. Anyway, I was not that way with Austin Echler because he was extremely humble down to earth. Just a phenomenal interview, a phenomenal guy. And obviously, as you guys well know, a great football player. I think that's going to come through with our interview. So, Trey, without further ado, here's our interview with Los Angeles Chargers running back and fantasy football superstar, Austin Echler.

Welcome in, everyone. This is a really special day at the Fantasy Points podcast. We've had some player interviews in the past here, but I got to be honest, this is the first time I'm ever doing a podcast with somebody I drafted in the first round literally like 35 minutes ago. His name is Austin Echler. He is the running back from the Los Angeles Chargers. If you listen to this podcast, undoubtedly you know who he is. But Austin, thanks for joining us. How are you doing?

How's camp going for you? Yeah, thanks for having me on, man. It's a great time of year. Fantasy football season. It gets me juiced up because I know how passionate people are about it. So training camp's been going well, man. We've been grinding out here. Every time I'm in training camp, I'm reminded up how much of a grind this season is.

And actually, training camp is harder than the actual season. And so that kind of gives you some perspective of what we're going through right now. But it's been good. So I'm going to throw a little bit of a curveball here at the beginning because I think if you're listening to a fantasy podcast. You know your resume, you know what you're all about. But in the backfield, in the backfield behind you and in that running back room, the charge has been kind of through the year since Melvin left, really, trying to get you maybe somebody who can spell you a little bit. What do you see him from the other guys in that backfield this preseason

in training camp? And can you shout any of them out? Yeah, man, it's been competitive. It's been really competitive. It's Isaiah Spiller and Joshua Kelly right now that are really battling out, playing at a high level for that spot. And right now, I can't tell you. I mean, really, we'll see in the preseason games. But it comes down to some special teams things as well for the backup positions. But I'm excited about both of these guys. Isaiah has come a long way from last year.

He's grown up a lot. And so that's going to be showing, and that has shown in these past few weeks and the last preseason games. So time will tell with these last two preseason games. and I'm excited to see who it is. But really, we're all trying to earn reps. I've got to continue to earn my reps as well. You're never entitled to reps.

You have to keep earning every inch that you can in this league. Our guy Scott Barrett has like the mantra, bell cow or bust. You know, you've got to be that bell cow running back. That's what's important for fantasy. But from your perspective, how important is it to get spelled every now and again to keep you fresh? What's important for fantasy isn't to be a bell cow. It's to be efficient and consistent.

That is what you're looking for. You know, you could have a guy who's a bell cow that, you know, their team isn't very great. And, you know, he's getting a lot of touches. But guess what? Their offense is terrible. And, you know, there's going three now. There's not a lot of production. And for me, it's like, look at our offense.

You know, we were consistent, even though we were kind of banged up. And guess who was consistent? I was consistent. Now, that's something that I strive for every single year is to be consistent. I don't have to go out there being Superman, make the plays within my fundamentals, within my scheme, within my role. And guess what? You know, the results will play themselves out.

And so for the past six years for myself, that's what I've done. And so that's being a player out here on the field, what I would say is guys that are consistent. You know, maybe they're top tier guys. Maybe they're, you know, mid-tier guys. But the guys that are consistent on the guys that are going to show up on your fantasy roster, they're going to score points. They're going to be those superstars. You've got the Marshall Falk kind of statistical resume here,

catching 100 passes, scoring a bunch of touchdowns. But there is a big change in L.A. You bring in Kellan Moore to be the offensive coordinator. What's his offense been like? what's playing for him been like? And stylistically, what kind of changes do we think we can expect from the offense? Yeah, I mean, we have a few new pieces. You know, we have Quentin Johnston coming in.

We got our receivers that are healthy coming back. And so there's a lot of, you know, right now where it's like everything's firing at all cylinders. We have this anticipation of what our offense is going to be. But you really don't know until you get into season. I've been using this kind of example where players are really evaluated. during preseason and coaches are evaluated during regular season. Obviously, players are as well, but that's when you can really tell, like, okay, what's meshing? Are the coaches doing a good job?

Because it takes all of us to come together. But it's really hard to tell. Are the coaches doing well or not during preseasoning because they don't have their star players? And then, you know, things happen during the season. How can you adjust? Like, there's different things that you, as a coach, that you'll actually critique them on. Are they able to adjust with who they have and actually continue to win games if people are banged up if things aren't going well.

And so we'll see. You know, with Kellyn, any adjustments? I mean, this is like my fourth offense that I've learned, and we're all running the same place. It just comes down to can our playmakers be consistent with them? It can Justin get us the ball at the right time? Can Kellyn call the right plays at the right time? And within those plays, can we make plays?

And so it just comes down to timing, comes down to consistency and then efficiency. Like, I'll preach that until I'm blue in the face. I know nobody in the preseason is trying to give away any of their offensive secrets. But one thing that's not a secret is that you're one of the biggest fantasy football fans in the NFL. So we have to ask you, aside from the Chargers, do you have any fantasy sleepers for us? Any guys that you're not leaving your draft without? Gosh, the fantasy sleepers conversation, I feel like it's so irrelevant because there's no way you can even, like you can

make all these acquisitions like, oh, maybe this is going to happen, this is going to happen. But you don't know who's getting hurt. You don't know who's going to come out of it. Like, take me, for example, my rookie year, I was a special team's guy. And no one had heard of me. I was like third string on the depth chart. And, you know, Brandon Oliver, the guy who was second string, ended up getting hurt. And I ended up getting some more offensive reps, scored a few touchdowns. And now all of a sudden, you know, I finished the season with like, like 800 yards of total offense and, you know, five touchdowns. Like, there's no way you would have found me, you know, thinking about, okay, Brandon Oliver is going to get hurt, and then this kid who's on special teams only is going to get an opportunity.

So I'm not big into the sleeper thing. You know, I think it kind of plays itself out during the season. And so I know that's probably not to answer you wanting because you want some insight, things like that. But there's really no way to tell. So whoever tells you that, oh, these are the sleepers, you know, I mean, I feel like you're trying to, you know, feeling some time for some content. You really don't know. But you can make your assumptions where you want.

I've been in this industry. This is my 15th year as a fantasy football professional. And I always tell people before the year, inevitably, we are going to be talking about somebody in November who you've never heard of in August. It's going to happen every year. I know you've seen it with that, Austin. And look, that's just the war of attrition, right? You just got to earn your keep. Keep earning.

You said keep earning your reps. That's what makes fantasy so great is because it's fluid. It's not the same like, okay, I got these guys. They're going to be the best again because they were last year. There's things that happen. Some of them might perform at that level. Some might drop. You might have to trade away people.

You might pick up someone a free agency because someone got hurt. Now you've got to get their backup or now you've got to find someone else. And so that's what makes it so great because there's just like us on the field and just like us during the season, you got to adjust. You got to manage your team and it's competitive. And you want to talk some smack to your opponents. So you want to make sure you're on it and people are passionate about it. And man, it's a good time. And so I think not knowing all the sleepers is even better because then, you know, if you do take the time to watch waivers to watch, guess what?

You're probably going to get rewarded for that. And if all the answers are all out there all over the place, then, you know, it's not going to be as interesting because now it's just kind of a copy-paste kind of thing. So you get to put your own flavor on it. And it's also a great answer if you don't want people to know who your sleepers are. So, you know, it's a win-win on both sides. You know what I mean? In all seriousness, speaking of fantasy, I wanted to ask you about the Austin Eccler Foundation. It's your third year with the charity fantasy football leagues.

could you give the folks listening a little bit of information about how that kind of started and what that process is and what it entails? Yeah, so a few years ago I started a foundation. I wanted to continue to give back opportunities like things that I had when I was growing up that helped me get to the position that I'm in today. And things that you would think that are just normal things in everyone's life, like washers and dryers, you know, access to a weight room, equipment, school equipment, football equipment, things like that, tangible resources that we can put back into the community is what we've

been doing. We just finished renovating a wait room out here in California, Long Beach Polly. We have another one that we're going to do up in Santa Barbara. And the things that we're putting back in, they're not just, you know, equipment, oh, you go use them. They're things that when you use them, you learn transferable skills that help you be a better person in the future. And so that's why I love renovating the waitrooms. You know, Santa Barbara's weight room was, you know, 50 years old, floorboards sticking up, equipment falling apart. And so all of the, all of the, all of the, the money from the foundation charity events like our merch line, our fantasy football leagues that we do, they all go into those new projects every single year. And so you can find us at austinnecler.com

to see all the other projects we've done and that we're going to continue to do. But it's been an amazing, amazing process and I've seen a lot of great results and looking to actually pick it up. We've been doing a couple of year. We're going to probably double our production here this year and then going into next year. So I'm really excited for the direction we're moving. We're going to continue to make an effort and continue to make our society a little bit better for those of us that are willing to go and put the effort in. Yeah, I think that's fantastic. You help young people pick up the sport and be able to obviously get on the right path. And Austin, you have a veteran offense, I think. Justin's a little bit younger, but I think he

plays beyond his years. But you, yourself, you have Keenan and Mike, but first round pick this year, Quentin Johnston, wide receiver out of TCU. I'm sure you well know his background. What's he been providing this team in training camp? And what have you seen from? Yeah, I think, you know, with younger players, it's really hard to judge, like, how they're going to be as far as, like, a player over time. But you can see right away the capabilities that they have, you know, how they move, how they catch the ball, you know, when they go up and jump, especially at the receiver position, how they move in and out of their routes. And with, with Quentin, man, like you could tell, like, if this case, you can tell, like, if this

kid keeps it together, right? Gets his head straight because there's a lot of mental aspects of the game that people don't really account for. It's like, oh, just go out there and play football. It's not that easy. You have to put the mental and physical. So if he's able to continue to get in the book, get some chemistry going with Justin, like this guy's going to be special.

I know the old line has a nickname for him, young future. The young future of this offense. But now he's been looking great. You know, been showing up at practice several times, him and Justin connecting. And I'm looking forward to seeing that develop. So like I said, you can't tell, you know, always right away how it's going to play out. But he definitely has the tools, just like we saw from Justin, has the tools to be a great player. So, Austin, you play fantasy football.

You understand the changing landscape. For the first time, maybe ever, I'm seeing wide receivers almost triple up running backs in the first round this year. But we know that you're always tweeting out, hey, draft me to your fantasy team. I'm going to help you win a championship. I want you to kind of give a little bit of a rah-rah speech. Can you convince people to draft Austin Echler, keep drafting running backs, and you in particular, in 2023 fantasy football? Look, look, I'm not going to make a raw, raw speech for any of the other running backs, you know. There's a few out there that I think you should definitely pick up early and me being in that, in that, you know, group.

Because like of what I talked about earlier, you know, what do you look for in your fantasy football team? You're looking for guys that are efficient, guys that score points, guys that are going to be utilized in some type of effective way in their office. offense. And for me, you know, I have, you know, done that for as long as I've been in the league. You know, there's been some ups and downs in there battling, you know, I had a hamstring injury three years ago. But then guess what? As long as I was on the field, I was back in there scoring points, right, been getting it done in the red zone, you know, 1,600 yards the past two years. And guess what? Now my offense is even better or healthy. And so guess what, we have more firepower to continue to make strides. And, you know, some people be like, oh,

now the ball is going to get passed around a lot more. Well, Guess what? When that happens, you know, my body's even more fresh, you know, which means a higher probability of staying healthy, right? Higher chance of having a more, you know, up or more scoring power offense and guess who's going to be involved in scoring? You know, so it's like if you're looking at, you know, our situation at the Chargers, then you have Austin Eckler at your team. You're probably pretty happy with your decision because, you know, the only thing that I feel like can hold me back is if I'm not on the field. So moral of the story, as it's been the last several years, draft Austin Eckler, you'll be happy. No worries there. I mean, I don't think you're going to be mad about the outcome for the past two years.

It's my goal to be consistent. And I was RB1 last year. So if I'm able to achieve my goal and be consistent again, it's like we're going back to back. I love it. The last thing I wanted to bring up is I was looking at your app. So it's the experience app and it's E-K-S instead of E-X, just for. for the listeners. But I read in your site that we could get a personalized video for about $55,

which I think is an absolute steel working in the content space. That's a steel, especially for the fans. But you guys have everything on there from autograph signings, video chats. I mean, I was impressed kind of scrolling through another one of your off-the-field ventures. Can you tell us kind of how the app came to be and just how you've been getting involved in these kind of ventures? Yeah, man. So kind of what I've been building off the field for myself has really been a team around me that can support other teams that I build around companies. You know, for the foundation, I have my internal team that helps support the team that builds and runs my foundation.

Same thing for my app experience. And so all of the efforts that I'm really putting in are to continue to utilize the NFL platform and create communities. And so whether that's, you know, through the foundation or through experience, my app. app where it gives influential people the opportunity to grant access to themselves. Where fans, like we have fans at training camp right now, that's probably the most access you're going to get to us during the entire season. So I was like, okay, what if fans want to get something signed? And what if I'm willing to sign your stuff?

There's no platform where I can really do that. And so I wanted to create a platform that had a bunch of different types of interactions and all in one spot. And so now you can go get something signed. You can play games with me. You can go get a video chat. You can go get a personalized video. You can, you know, buy.

I had like some, I bought, I sold. some like of my game day fit shoes on there. You know, like you could do a lot of different interactions on experience. And so I wanted to create one platform. And we'll continue to add different interactions as we continue to develop. But we have those six for now. And it's been a good time. I've done hundreds of different interactions right now.

I'm announcing people's fantasy football drafts. I'm talking shit to their opponents, stuff like that. It's been fun. And I'm looking forward to doing it all season. His name is Austin Echler. He is the RV1 in fantasy football. And yes, you can have him talk shit to your league. mates as well. Austin, thank you so much for joining us on the Fantasy Points podcast. Good luck this year.

We're really excited to watch you. Thanks, boys. Thanks for having me. Thank you, Austin Echler, for 15 generous minutes. Literally, Trey, if you haven't seen on social media, he was literally in his practice uniform coming back from training camp. And always interesting to see guys in their element, the fact that he was able to give us that time when, I mean, literally he was on the practice field was pretty cool. But he's excited for the season. We're excited for the season. And we hope to bring you more of these interviews in the near future.

Like you said, took time out of a busy day. And it's an extremely busy time right now for those guys to hop on. And I think really the takeaway here is that you just never quite know who's going to stop by on the Fantasy Points podcast. I know we after last episode, we weren't sure who the next guest was going to be. And here we are with Austin Eckler, you know, a fantasy legend. And so you never know who's going to pop by and show up on the next episode. I can't wait for Fantasy Points Podcast interview episode number five with Big Ed. That's going to be a huge one for us.

I'm sure he's got a whole lot of sleepers that he's willing to discuss with us. For Trey Camberling, you can follow him on Twitter at Trey Camberling. I'm Joe Dolan at FG underscore Dolan on Twitter. Make sure you follow the website at Fantasy PTS. And of course, our Fantasy Points data suite at Fantasy PTS data. It's been wonderful bringing you the Fantasy Points Podcast. We'll talk to you soon.