Melvin Gordon Return: Expert Compares Chargers RB, Cowboys’ Ezekiel Elliott

Getty Melvin Gordon exited the Ravens-Chargers playoff game.

Los Angeles Chargers running back, Melvin Gordon has been activated for Week 4 of football.

In July, Gordon told the Chargers that if he did not receive a new contract, he would demand a trade and would in fact skip training camp.

Gordon who through four seasons totaled 3,628 rushing yards and 1,577 receiving yards along with 38 total touchdowns felt that he should be paid as well as running backs Todd Gurley, David Johnson and Le’Veon Bell.

“I know my value,” said Gordon.

“I know what I bring to this team and I’m sticking with that.”

Well, after sitting out 64 days, Gordon roughly lost $2 million in wages and through fines.

Per Landon Buford: Gordon will be playing in the last year of his rookie deal — making $5.6 million this season.

According to the Los Angeles Times: Before the season started the Chargers offered Gordon a deal in the $10 million a year range.

Drafted by the Chargers in the first round of the 2015 NFL Draft, the two-time NFL Pro-Bowler was looking for a deal worth $13 million per year.

Appearing on the Scoop B Radio Podcast, prominent sports attorney Richard Roth weighed in on Gordon’s holdout and his eventual return.

Check out an excerpt from our conversation from Scoop B Radio below:

Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: So when you look at players today, Scoop B Radio talking all things NFL, you look at Melvin Gordon with the San Diego Chargers (Los Angeles), who has a holdout, and you look at the situation and you see how he’s holding out and he’s basically going to figure out what he’s going to do next. I’m looking at it now, 26-year old University of Wisconsin product, final year of his rookie contract, so they have to pay him $4.9 million. For athletes, is it worth sitting out for? Like, you look at Ezekiel Elliott, he got his money. Is it always worth a player sitting out? Somebody like Melvin Gordon versus somebody like Ezekiel Elliott. How, as an attorney, do you advise players to move in cases like that?

Richard Roth: So it’s very, very fact-sensitive. Melvin Gordon is a good example. He believes, through his agent, that if he holds out long enough, they will hit his number, but it’s fact-sensitive. Number one is how’s the team doing while he’s held out? Number two is what’s the cap? Does a team have a salary cap? Can they afford him? Number three is how old is he, I think Gordon’s like 26, but if you’re more in your 30’s, you’ll have less of a chance, you don’t have that many years left, so there’s a lot of factors that go into it, the rumor I heard recently is that he is going to come back, he was scheduled to make about $5.6 million in the final season of his rookie deal, and he thinks he’s entitled to more, and I mean, he’s got a good argument. There’s players who have an average of $13-$14 million annually at his caliber, so it’s really a function of a bunch of things. If a team keeps winning, I think the Chargers are 1-2, if the teams keep winning, then they’re going to say “I don’t need him”, but if they become 1-3 and 1-4, he’s valuable. It’s all a function of how much he can turn that team around being on the field, so it’s very fact-sensitive. I’m not sure who’s going to budge, whether it’s going to be him or the Chargers, but this is a guy who really deserves to be on the field.