Omarion Hampton — Week 2: Ninety-Four Yards and a Lost Fumble
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 21
Hampton carried 23 times for 94 yards and a one-yard touchdown and caught both targets for 21 yards. Down 17–14 with 3:52 left, he fumbled at the Raiders 46; Jeremy Chinn returned it 43 yards to the Chargers 16, a swing of 35 points of win probability, the largest of any play in a 26–14 loss to the Raiders.
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17 to 14, Raiders, three 52 left in the game. The Chargers had just been handed a first down when Las Vegas put too many men on the field on fourth and one. First and 10 at the Raiders 48: Omarion Hampton up the middle for two, Nakobe Dean knocked the ball out, Jeremy Chinn picked it up at the 41 and ran it 43 yards to the Chargers 16, where Justin Herbert made the tackle. −7.4 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and −35.4 points of win probability, the chance of winning the game after the play against before it. No play by either team moved the game further. Three snaps later Cody White scored and it was 24 to 14.
The line: 23 carries, 94 yards, one touchdown, one fumble lost, six first downs, eight of the 23 successful, −11.0 expected points on the carries, 7.4 of that on the fumble. 15 carries before halftime for 70 yards, eight after for 24. The touchdown tied the game at seven with five 30 left in the second quarter, left guard from the one, on a 10-play, 69-yard drive where he touched the ball seven times: carries of five, nothing, seven, four, 10 to the one and the score, plus an 18-yard catch on second and 10. The longest run was 17, up the middle on the last play of the first half. Two third-down carries, neither converted: three yards on third and nine from his own two, and no gain on third and two at the Chargers 28 with nine 10 left, down three. Runs of seven and four came back on holding penalties. Two targets, two catches, 21 yards.
The split: Hampton 23 of 31 designed runs, Keaton Mitchell five, Quentin Johnston one, and two aborted snaps charged to Herbert. Kimani Vidal had none. 19 designed runs before halftime and 12 after.
Back in June the preview called Hampton a watchlist, and meant it literally: a rookie who averaged a draftable-starter's points in nine games, priced at pick 17 as the ninth running back on the assumption that a per-game rate scales to a full year, with 20 touches a game named as the confirming number and availability as the other thing to watch. Week 1 was 12 touches, no targets, and a lost fumble that was the biggest swing by any pass or run in that game. Sunday was 25 touches, a hundred 15 yards from scrimmage and two catches, so the workload question got the answer the preview asked for. And then the second fumble in two games, again the biggest swing of the day. One was not a pattern. Two is not one yet either, but it is the thing to watch now. The Chargers are at the Bills on Sunday the 20-seventh.
_Data via nflverse._
When Omarion Hampton's week moves the numbers, you'll know — every episode, in one weekly email.
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