{"id":23165,"date":"2025-05-04T13:12:19","date_gmt":"2025-05-04T13:12:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/23165\/"},"modified":"2025-05-04T13:12:19","modified_gmt":"2025-05-04T13:12:19","slug":"rb-omarion-hampton-north-carolina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/23165\/","title":{"rendered":"RB Omarion Hampton, North Carolina"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.chargers.com\/news\/omarion-hampton-nfl-draft-2025-north-carolina-running-back-instant-analysis\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Chargers selected Omarion Hampton<\/a> the North Carolina running back with the No. 22 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft on Thursday night.<\/p>\n<p>Hampton is one of the top players at the running back position in this year&#8217;s draft class and is NFL Network&#8217;s Daniel Jeremiah&#8217;s No. 13 overall prospect.<\/p>\n<p>Jeremiah offered the following breakdown of Hampton:<\/p>\n<p>As a runner, he likes to press the hole early before deciding to stay inside or bounce out wide. He has enough speed to capture the corner when he gets to the perimeter. He&#8217;s a loose runner and has make-you-miss ability in space. He has an impressive blend of power and balance on contact. His vision is a little inconsistent, though. He will occasionally run up the back of blockers. In the pass game, he&#8217;s effective on angle routes, screens and shovels. He has strong, reliable hands. In pass pro, he is quick to sort and attack blitzers with a sharp, six-inch punch. Overall, Hampton has the size and tools to be an effective starter right away.<\/p>\n<p>ESPN&#8217;s Mel Kiper, Jr., also had the running back around the same range, slotting him in at 14th in his rankings.<\/p>\n<p>Hampton is a dependable rusher who can make defenders miss in the hole. And once he sees daylight, he&#8217;s gone. He ran a 4.46-second 40-yard dash in Indianapolis, and that is a solid time for a running back of his size. And he averaged 5.9 yards per carry last season and had 45 runs for 10 or more yards.<\/p>\n<p>Hampton is also a reliable pass catcher out of the backfield and holds up well as a blocker when asked to pick up a pass rusher. In short, he&#8217;s an impressive all-purpose performer.<\/p>\n<p>The selection of Hampton gives the Chargers a dynamic offensive playmaker in the run game, and another ball carrier to pair alongside Najee Harris as well.<\/p>\n<p>The 22-year-old Hampton is listed at 6-foot-0 and 221 pounds.<\/p>\n<p>Hampton, a First-Team All-American in each of his final two seasons, surpassed the 1,500-yard rushing mark each of his last two seasons leading the North Carolina backfield.<\/p>\n<p>He was also a two-time Doak Walker Award Finalist as the running back finished third on the Tar Heels all-time list in yards from scrimmage (4,200) and touchdowns (36).<\/p>\n<p>Get all of your Bolts draft news at the <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" style=\"word-break: break-word\" href=\"https:\/\/www.chargers.com\/draft\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Chargers 2025 Draft Hub<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Chargers selected Omarion Hampton the North Carolina running back with the No. 22 overall pick in the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2064],"tags":[39,37,241,7,34,38,1014,262,2444,2443,6,288],"class_list":{"0":"post-23165","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-chargers","8":"tag-2025-draft","9":"tag-app-homepage","10":"tag-chargers","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-homepage-cp","13":"tag-homepage-headlines","14":"tag-los-angeles","15":"tag-los-angeles-chargers","16":"tag-losangeles","17":"tag-losangeleschargers","18":"tag-nfl","19":"tag-omarion-hampton"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114449740374800778","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}