8:11 PM ET
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Eric D. WilliamsESPN Staff Writer
- Covered Seahawks for Tacoma News Tribune for six seasons.
- Played college football at University of Puget Sound
Running back Melvin Gordon contacted the Los Angeles Chargers and told them he plans to report on Thursday, ending his 64-day holdout, sources confirmed to ESPN.
Although he now is set to rejoin his teammates, Gordon expects 2019 will be his final season with the Chargers, a source told ESPN’s Josina Anderson.
Chargers coach Anthony Lynn said that if Gordon does report this week, he will not play in his team’s Sunday road game against the winless Miami Dolphins.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer first reported that Gordon was ending his holdout.
The Chargers (1-2) likely will apply for a two-week roster exemption, giving the team time to evaluate when Gordon is in shape and ready to play.
“I don’t think you just walk in camp and just play right away without going through any practice,” Lynn told reporters Wednesday. “You can run and do all the drills you want, but it’s hard to simulate real football.”
Gordon and his representation also have to resolve how they will handle the monetary fines that have piled up during his absence.
According to the league’s collective bargaining agreement, as a player on his fifth-year option of his rookie deal, Gordon can be fined $30,000 per day for missing training camp, along with one week’s regular-season salary for each preseason game missed — a total of about $2.22 million. He can also lose $989,118 worth of base salary for missing three regular-season games. He can still earn $4,615,882 if he reports and plays on his contract.
The Chargers will seek to collect the fines, a source told ESPN.
Los Angeles is No. 13 in the NFL in rushing through the first three games without Gordon, averaging 112 yards per contest. Starting in place of Gordon, Austin Ekeler has 160 rushing yards and four total touchdowns.
Chargers general manager Tom Telesco announced just before the start of the regular season that the team had postponed negotiations with Gordon until the end of the campaign and said that if Gordon chose to report that he would play under his current contract.
Gordon desires a contract extension that will put him among the league’s top-paid running backs, such as Ezekiel Elliott, Todd Gurley, David Johnson and Le’Veon Bell. The Chargers had offered Gordon a contract that would have doubled his salary to roughly $10 million annually.
