Austin Ekeler PRAISES QB Jayden Daniels Ahead of First Season I NFL on CBS

Intro The Washington Commanders added to their offense as off season by adding veteran running back Austin Ekeler to their backfield. Ekeler entering 2024 looking to prove he can still be a productive part of the offense. He was hobbled for most of last season due to a high ankle sprain. He had career lows in yards per rush and yards per touch last season. So Ekeler looking to bounce back after a tough 2023. He is one of two players in NFL history with ten rushing touchdowns and five receiving touchdowns in multiple seasons. He led the NFL in touchdowns in both 2021 and 22, and he took some time to chat Austin Ekeler about his new surroundings with our Jonathan Jones. Jonathan Jones, CBS sports alongside brand new fresh car smell Washington Commanders running. I just got out of practice. I don't know if that's the right smell you're talking about there. Yeah, I don't I don't know either. If your car smells like him, take it to the shop. Austin Ekeler. Thank you so much for joining us. We've done this a couple times with you, but we've been out on the West Coast and now here we are. The humidity of Ashburn Virginia New team same you different. You more experience to me, same mentality, but just a little bit further on in my career as far as my mentality as far as understanding the game and then also my leadership. So looking forward to bringing my experience to this new team. And it's been it's been a building, kind of methodology here. So since I've been here with, with DK, so another year for a running back means that you're old, right? Isn't that what the NFL says? You say more experience. Everyone would say no, he's he's fat and he's slow and he can't play anymore. I try to shut down the narrative and say like, let the play do the talking, you know, and so this is a new year for me to show what I'm able to do. You know, in the past I've, I've continued to, to progress, we, we went through some adversity last year with, with the Chargers but looking to, like I said, bounce back this year with the commanders. Yeah. Looking back at last year that ankle injury early in the season just absolutely derailed it. Right I know you had your worst season statistically, but it was it was because of that September ankle right. Yeah. Well that was a big that was a big part of it. Absolutely I shouldn't assume what else when you're when you're running with one leg it's tough. You know the high ankle sprains, but you know, there's more that goes into it than that we can get into in this interview. But, you know, I'm just looking forward here and trying to get my get my best foot forward to make it better. This year, I was just over there. And this will be the last Chargers question till we move to the Burgundy. But do you peek over the hedges and, you know, catch some of the Jim Harbaugh clips or anything. Are you paying any attention to your old place. You spent a lot of years there. I've kept in touch with some of the guys, but I haven't seen any of the Harbaugh stuff or anything like that or what they have going on. I'm sure. Sure, it's sure. It's great. Right? When you things you see on social media are always, you know, romanticized and all that, but I just I'm rooting for some of those guys over there just because I've been been with them for a long time. Watch you out here at practice and, saw you on the kickoff. Brand new kickoff that we have. What do you think about it? You think it's actually going to be successful? It's strange. It's definitely strange. You know, we're trying some new things back there. We're trying, like, we're kind of maybe treating it like some wide zone action. That's why you see me back there, though. Okay. We got a running back with the philosophies of knowing how to read wide zone type of, you know, blocking schemes and if we're going to be blocking it up like that, then, okay, let's put a running back back there to see if he can, you know, find the gap, hit it and treat it, maybe cut it back, find a seam. So I'm interested to see how it kind of plays out. I saw it with the Hall of Fame game and nothing really seemed different, besides less collisions, which is great for us. You know, that's what the rule is for, is to try to take out some of the violence from that one play. And I think that was successful. Anyway you are Austin, one of, I believe, seven players in NFL history who has 30 receiving touchdowns and 30 rushing touchdowns, which do you prefer more? What do you get more joy out of a rushing touchdown or a receiving touchdown? I mean, at this point, it's just getting in the end zone. It's so hard to score in this league, that getting in the end zone is what I enjoy. Hey, how can we how can I get into the end zone? Because it caps off all the hard work that the entire offense defense getting the ball back, it caps off us getting points and putting something on the board, which is what ultimately wins games. So it really does not matter. It's very equal. I love them 100% the same. I know he's in the non-contact jersey out here. Jayden Daniels, your rookie quarterback, in college and we were just talking with Dan Quinn about this. You know, he toted the rock and he took some hits sometimes. Have you given him some some pointers on how to carry the football in the NFL? Look what we say. Our philosophy is hey let the runners run. Let the throwers throw. You know. And every once in a while if you have a gap, get your, get your, get down, get down. Right. If you can, because you're not built, you know, like like we are to go and take hits, it's a little different. It's a lot different than college. The speed of the game, the size, the strength. Are you getting all of the studs from college that are now here, and been playing for a long time. And so, it's one of those things where I think it's going to take time to kind of learn just because him as a football player, he has the way he plays and he's going to have to adjust. Just like everyone goes through an adjustment. Coming to the NFL, how have you seen him as a quarterback out here? You know some live bullets flying. But so far what have you seen from the road. Yeah man he's been he's been picking up the offense. He's been showing some leadership skills talking to individuals I know he talks to me after certain routes about hey what do you see here? Or hey, like, hey, I'm going to keep coming to you with that. Like I'd love to hear those types of comments from him, as a rookie, it takes a while for any rookie to really get their feet, kind of underneath them. And feel like comfortable leading. And so he's been taking steps towards that, he's been running a lot with the first group out here making great throws, and continuing to push forward through some things that he'll learn through. And so I'm excited for him and excited for our club because of that. What are you expecting your, role on this team to be? Because Brian Robinson Jr returns here as wel. How are you seeing the reps kind of divvied up right now. Right now it's make plays. Make plays when you're on the field. You know, I was, in a situation with, with Anthony Lynn, my running back coach. Now, when he was my head coach with Melvin Gordon and he still Melvin, I remember he ran for a thousand yards. I had like a thousand yards, all purpose had a few touchdowns. But we were just making plays out in the field. And that's what it came down to. And so with Coach Lynn, we definitely have plays that we like to have different types of bodies around. Based off of your skill set. So it's going to be, hey, where can we get our guys where we can get Brian in the best spot for him to have success in the same thing for Austin or any of the other backs that are in there right now. So we'll continue to put ourselves. We might both be on the field. It might be Brian, because we need him in this scenario. It might be me because we I'm better maybe in this scenario. So that's what I love about our coaching staff right now. And Kliff Kingsbury, putting us in positions to make plays. You were not a businessman, but a business man. I would say both. Hey, both. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, both, you have an app? Yeah, I was learning a little bit about it. Tell me, tell me about it and tell us about it. Yeah, it's called experience based off of my last name. Eek Experience x x. Call me x. So it's experience that makes sense. I understand how that works. And it's a it's a fan engagement tool. And, from the perspective of an athlete, there's a lot of fans. You know, we're at training camp out here signing autographs. Well, there's a lot of people that couldn't make it here today that would love to have some type of interaction with me or get something signed. So now they can go through experience. You can send in an item, it'll end up at the facility, get signed and we'll send it back. Or if you want to do a one on one interaction or subscribe to our team newsletter, you can do that through the app. So fan engagement brought to your phone. What sort of one on one interaction. Yeah. So if you want to ask me about the game or root me on or talk to me about fantasy, you can do like a personalized request where you send me a message and I'll respond to you, if there's a video chat that I'm offering, you can do that. If I'm offering a game with me, you can go in there and game with me. If you want to do something on social media, social media, like I said, if you want to get something signed. Yeah it goes on. We have a ton of different engagements in there, so check it out, I think I saw where you have some teammates who are involved. Oh yeah. Yeah, I think there's like 80, 90 guys on there in there from around the league. Yeah, so we have a we have a good amount of guys on there doing interactions and really it's about, hey, how can we allow an open door to us for the fans to take advantage of the ones that are really supported of us, and then we can give that support back to them as well? I thought, though, Austin, that you weren't supposed to go into business with friends like that's what I've always heard. Don't go into business with friends. Oh, you want to get your bathroom remodeled? Well, don't ask the friend from church because. Well, I'm going to business into business for my friends. So I'm going into business to help our guys make more money. And then also give their opportunity to connect with their fans. So I'm doing that for them, for myself, for them, not with them, for them. There you go. It's different. Well, as as long as you continue to talk to the media and not just say, no, no, no, I'm not talking to you guys in the locker room after the game. I'm going to I'm going to go on my app. You have to download my app. You're not going to do that to us, are you? No, I won't do that because you guys, it's for the people that aren't here, right? If you're here, if you're around. Yeah, you get that interaction. But what about the people across the across the coast or in the Outro different state or in a different country? How are they going to get an interaction? Well, now you go through experience. Yes. And through CBS sports also. Austin Eckler, thanks so much. Absolute thanks for having me on. Thank you very much, gentlemen. Our fantasy football guys there approaching Ekeler with a little bit of caution this season due to the down year last year. And the fact that he's 29 years old. Running back PPR rankings. They have him 35th overall in PPR. Remember also the first time in his career that he's going to be on a new team and a new offense with a dual threat