One Futures Bet A Day For NFL Countdown: Austin Ekeler Receiving Yards

The NFL countdown is on! We have our first preseason action today, and it gives us all a taste of the NFL action we’ve been waiting for. Through August, I’ll be releasing one NFL Futures bet per day. Some of these will be on your sports books like DraftKings or FanDuel. Others will be somewhere like Underdog Fantasy. Let’s get ready for the season by loading up on future bets! Here is the NFL futures bet for day twenty-one!

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One Futures Bet A Day For NFL Countdown: Austin Ekeler Receiving Yards

Austin Ekeler HIGHER than 399.5 Receiving Yards (Underdog Fantasy)

After what felt like a disappointing year for Ekeler, the Chargers decided to part ways. Ekeler entered the league in 2017 and has spent his entire career playing for the Chargers. It will be weird to see him suit up for the Washington Commanders as he takes on more of a complimentary role to Brian Robinson. I don’t think that’s a bad thing for Ekeler, though.

New Team Success?

Ekeler’s receiving yardage total on Underdog Fantasy feels too low despite being in a complimentary role. Last year Antonio Gibson played the role Ekeler is going to have. No offense to Antonio Gibson, but Ekeler is a far more talented player in catching out of the backfield. In 16 games, Gibson had 48 receptions on 59 targets for 389 yards. There’s no reason Ekeler can’t do better than that.

Aside from his rookie year, Ekeler’s lowest receiving total came back in 2020 when he played only ten games. He had 403 receiving yards that year. In seven years of playing, Ekeler has averaged 554.86 receiving yards a year. Granted, a lot of those came with him as the featured back.

However, I trust Kliff Kingsbury and the Air Raid offense will utilize throwing to the running back when needed. Ekeler is the guy who will get those snaps over Brian Robinson.

Let’s flashback to last year. Remember how we said it felt disappointing and fantasy football managers could feel the end of an era with Austin Ekeler? After we over-drafted him and were disappointed, we swore he was done.

Even in that disappointing year, Ekeler had 436 receiving yards. With a fresh start and likely fresh legs when sharing the workload, Ekeler should be able to hit HIGHER than 399.5 receiving yards easily enough.