The fear is understandable.

Leonard Fournette injured his hamstring in Week 1, played only one more game and is out at least until Week 10 after the Jaguars’ bye.

Dalvin Cook left Minnesota’s Week 2 game with a hamstring injury, has played sparingly in two games since, and there has been speculation he will sit through the Vikings’ Week 10 bye.

So I get why fans might be worried about Chargers running back Melvin Gordon and his hamstring, especially since he was a surprise late-week inactive before the team’s game in Week 7 and due to the lack of news during the team’s bye in Week 8.


Given that Gordon suffered the injury in practice, there is no video. Even if there were, hamstring injuries are difficult to assess via video.

An important thing to note is not all hamstring injuries are the same. There is wide variety in severity.

At this point, Gordon’s injury does not seem to be long term, as he was back at practice in a limited capacity on Wednesday. Certainly, his continued participation in practice should be monitored as an indicator of his readiness.

We can’t know at this point whether he will play this week, but barring a setback he should play soon.


Have some patience. The Chargers likely will.

It would be smart for the team to not turn this into a long-term deal by bringing him back a week too soon. It could be postulated Fournette and Cook both came back too quickly, as they returned to the lineup before suffering setbacks.

In any case, I do not anticipate that history will repeat itself, as I don’t expect Gordon to be out anywhere near as long as the other two running backs have been.