running has produced at a historic rate the last two seasons, becoming only the seventh player since the 1970 NFL-AFL merger to lead the in touchdowns scored in consecutive seasons with 20 scrimmage touchdowns in 2021 and 18 in 2022. He's also only the second player in NFL history with multiple seasons with 10 or more rushing touchdowns and five or more receiving touchdowns, joining Pro Football Hall of Famer Marshall Faulk (2000-2001).However, Ekeler isn't being compensated historically as he enters the final season of a four-year, $24.5 million contract he signed with Los Angeles back in 2020. That was a nice second contract for the former undrafted free agent, but now it's a deal that's well below the top earners at his position. Running backs on the franchise  https://www.shoprocketsedge.com/houston … een-jersey tag like the rusher , rusher , and running back will all make more than him. Even new running back , coming off his first Pro Bowl season, will make more than him after signing a four-year, $25.4 million contract.Unfortunately for the NFL's most productive, all-purpose back, his position's market value is currently non-existent. The Chargers granted Ekeler permi sion to find a trade to a team willing to give the long-term contract he seeks, but that hasn't happened at this time."When it comes down to what's going on with the whole trade and all that stuff, really, look, we're trying to find a long-term partner," Austin Ekeler said Tuesday. "That's what we want. We want someone who wants to sign us for a few years and sees us not just in the immediate future, but a couple years out. Once everything halted with the Chargers, alright, it was time to go and see if we can find value somewhere else because they just kind of showed that they weren't interested at that time.  https://www.shoprocketsedge.com/houston … one-jersey Time will play out. Who knows? We'll see what happens with the draft. But it's a situation where, look, if a team wants me in the long term, it's a year where they'll have to give up picks and then I'll have to renegotiate, so that's kind of playing into it for sure. But we'll see, like I said. Time will tell, and we'll see what happens after the draft."  The best hope for Ekeler is a running back-hungry team mi ses out on the prospect they liked in the upcoming 2023 draft. Otherwise, it's one more year of being underpaid while playing next to quarterback ."Look, I gue s the worst-case scenario right now out of all of it, I'll come back and I'll have to play for the Chargers for a year and bet on myself and then be a free agent next year."Ekeler clarified that there isn't a splintered relationship between himself and the team even though he feels like he "kind of got punched in the face." Although even though he doesn't want to leave the Chargers, Ekeler has reconciled that the contract he desires may not come from the only NFL home he's known.  "Last year, we went to them and were like, 'Hey, are you guys interested? https://www.shoprocketsedge.com/houston … ker-jersey ' It was definitely too early then; we didn't really have as much leverage so we didn't try as hard," Ekeler said. "They gave us an offer, but it was like, 'Hey, take this and we can continue our discount that we're getting.' And we were like, 'Ah, we can't do that.' So I played this year on my contract again and obviously set the bar high, way higher than I'm actually being compensated for once again. So https://www.shoprocketsedge.com/houston … ood-jersey  now after this year ended, it was around the combine that a lot of these talks start happening.  Basically, we just could not even get close to It wasn't even much of a negotiation. It was just kind of a, more so 'hey, this is what we're thinking, this is what they're thinking,' and it was just OK, we are not on the same page, let's just end this because I don't want to talk about this anymore."That's when the trade request entered the conversation."Pretty much after that it was 'we want to get traded, we want to go and actually look for value somewhere else and see if someone else might have some interest in us in a longer-term partnership,'" Ekeler said. "That's kind of the scenario that I'm in right now and that's what it's been. Now we're just going through and playing the game."It seemed unlikely a team was going to have a desire to take on 's top of the market running back contract (four years, $64 million), but the did so during the 2022 season. For Ekeler, a contender outside of the Bolts coming in to add him as their mi sing piece during the 2023 season seems like his best hope at the moment.  "Maybe we can get something done throughout the year," Ekeler said when talking about contract extension talks heating back up. "Who knows how it's going to play out? That's  https://www.shoprocketsedge.com/houston … use-jersey how I'm feeling right now because we don't really have insight of what they're thinking. They're just like, 'nah, we don't want to talk anymore.'" Pro Bowl running back ended up taking a pay cut this offseason after totaling a career-high 1,121 rushing yards in 2022. The NFL today is a cold world for running backs, even for Ekeler, the most productive player at the position.