The Los Angeles Chargers don’t have a lot to celebrate about after a disappointing 5-11 season. This was especially a letdown coming off the 12-4 season in the year prior, which was the team’s best season in nearly a decade. But now they find themselves sitting home in January with a few questions to answer, including possibly at quarterback of all things. But there were still some bright spots, and here we’ll focus on more of those. So let’s hand out some awards for the 2019 Los Angeles Chargers season.
2019 Los Angeles Chargers Team Awards
Most Valuable Player: Austin Ekeler
In a year in which Philip Rivers declined, and Melvin Gordon declined generally even harder, this was a rather unexpected turn of events. This covers both MVP and Most Improved Player at the same time. Austin Ekeler stepped in as the starting running back when Gordon was having his holdout and performed very well. He was particularly important in getting the Week 1 win over the Indianapolis Colts.
And while his running opportunities mostly vanished when Gordon returned, his receiving ones didn’t. If anything, they went up. With Travis Benjamin out for the season, Ekeler basically became the #3 receiver. (Don’t mention Andre Patton.) And in that capacity, he had 92 receptions for 993 yards and eight touchdowns. He had 557 rushing yards and three touchdowns as well, giving him over 1,500 yards from scrimmage. In Week 14, he had 200 yards from scrimmage on just 12 touches – including an 84-yard touchdown which gave us this glorious moment.
While putting a receiving back here may seem odd, there was no one else who contributed as consistently as Ekeler did on a week-to-week basis. It’s rather astounding that he got snubbed from the Pro Bowl. Fans should hope the Chargers get him locked up in free agency.
Offensive Player of the Year: Keenan Allen
We could easily put Ekeler here. But there’s someone else here who deserves recognition too, so we’ll let some variety in. Keenan Allen did kind of disappear in October, but he still put together another strong season and earned his third straight Pro Bowl berth as a result. He finished with a career-high 104 catches (also a franchise record) for 1,199 yards and six touchdowns.
His September was particularly excellent, which saw him have over 450 of his yards in just four games. In Week 3, he had one of the best games of his career with 13 catches for 183 yards and two touchdowns. While he never crossed 100 yards again after that, he did bounce back down the stretch and put together some solid games. While this season wasn’t quite as mind-blowing as a whole, he remains a top ten receiver in this league and made some plays worthy of that.
Defensive Player of the Year: Joey Bosa
Joey Bosa played all 16 games this time, and in case anybody forgot just how dominant he can be, he reminded us. He finished the season with 67 tackles, 11.5 sacks, and 20 tackles for a loss. The latter two categories led the team significantly – Melvin Ingram was the only one even close in either spot. Bosa was the only other Pro Bowler for the Chargers besides Allen, and he definitely earned it.
Offensive Rookie of the Year: Trey Pipkins*
The asterisk is because there wasn’t really anyone else to choose. The Chargers only drafted two offensive rookies in 2019 – one of them a backup quarterback that didn’t see any snaps (Easton Stick). The other was offensive tackle Trey Pipkins. So as being one of only two offensive rookies to even get snaps (the other being undrafted receiver Jason Moore, who only had two catches), he gets the award by default. He didn’t do a ton to stand out, so ordinarily, he probably wouldn’t get this award. He did show a little promise, though. We’ll see if he improves further in the future.
Defensive Rookie of the Year: Drue Tranquill
Middle linebacker Drue Tranquill was selected in the fourth round. He was the third defensive player taken in the draft by the Chargers, with both Jerry Tillery and Nasir Adderley coming ahead with higher expectations. Flash forward to the end of the season, and Adderley spent virtually all of it on injured reserve. Tillery showed a little promise but didn’t contribute a ton. Meanwhile, Tranquill was second on the team with 75 tackles (four of them being for a loss). He also contributed one pass deflection.
Tranquill probably won’t be a finalist for league DROY. But he’s still been the biggest standout in the Chargers 2019 draft class so far and may become a big building block for the linebacking corps going forward into the future.
Comeback Player of the Year: Hunter Henry
Hunter Henry missed all of the 2018 regular season with an ACL injury. He returned for the playoffs, but was held back a bit and didn’t really contribute anything. He missed four more games in 2019 with a separate knee injury. But when he came back he made up for lost time. In his first game back from injury against the Pittsburgh Steelers, he had eight catches for 100 yards and two touchdowns – reminding us why he’s an important weapon for this team.
Henry finished the season with 55 catches for 652 yards (both career highs) and five touchdowns. While he didn’t finish towards the top of the team in receiving, he still made the most of his opportunities and had a few of his better games. And given that he was coming off an ACL tear last year plus an additional knee injury this year, he’s done impressively.
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