Austin Ekeler has another dud as fantasy football playoffs get underway

It's the first round of the fantasy football playoffs and though owners had to be a bit leery about Austin Ekeler with the way he has been trending in recent weeks, he was a first-round pick in the majority of drafts and he had to be in the lineup.

He's given those owners a good-sized hole to climb out of this weekend as he shared reps with Joshua Kelley and Isaiah Spiller throughout the game as the Los Angeles Chargers suffered a 63-21 loss at the hands of the Las Vegas Raiders.

With the Chargers having to turn to Easton Stick as their starting quarterback and with Keenan Allen, the league's leading receiver, also out, it was safe to assume that the team would have to turn to Ekeler to shoulder the load.

There were a few reasons why that didn't happen, but it was mostly because this game just got out of hand so quickly. The Raiders were leading 42-0 at halftime.

In the end, Ekeler finished with just nine yards rushing on five carries. He caught four passes for 29 yards to prevent it from being a complete stinker, but it was still a rough night. In league's that give a decimal point for each yard gained and a full point per reception, Ekeler posted a miniscule 7.8 points in this game.

That is going to it difficult for those fantasy teams with Ekeler in their lineups to get to the next round. It also opens the conversation even bigger in terms of what Ekeler's future holds, but it's becoming harder and harder to believe that he will be with the Chargers next season.

Ekeler has had a rough 2023 season. He has rushed for 100 yards just once this season (Week 1) and after catching 107 passes last year, he has just 36 receptions this year.