Los Angeles Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh said running back Kimani Vidal’s work had been “screaming count on me.” On Sunday, the Chargers had to, and the former Troy standout responded with the best game of his NFL career in a 29-27 victory over the Miami Dolphins.
That means Los Angeles will be counting on Vidal again on Sunday when the Chargers play the Indianapolis Colts, who have the best record in the AFC at 5-1.
“For days, weeks, months, I mean, he’s been screaming count on me,” Harbaugh said. “And the way he played in this game, it was very, very loud with a count-on-me guy.”
As a sixth-round draft choice, Vidal ran for 155 yards on 43 carries and caught five passes for 62 yards and one touchdown while playing 169 offensive snaps in 10 games for the Los Angeles Chargers in 2024.
In the offseason, the Chargers let their top two rushers leave in free agency, but that didn’t move Vidal up the depth chart. Los Angeles used its first-round draft pick on North Carolina running back Omarion Hampton and signed former Alabama All-American Najee Harris after four 1,000-yard seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
At the end of the preseason, the Chargers kept Hampton, Harris and Hassan Haskins as their active-roster running backs. Haskins had 89 rushing yards in 2024, but he had 292 special-teams plays. Vidal ended up on the practice squad.
But an Achilles injury in the third game ended Harris’ season, and Hampton followed him to injured reserve with an ankle injury in the fifth game.
Instead of putting Hampton in the starting lineup, the Chargers signed Vidal off the practice squad to the 53-player active roster, and he responded with 124 yards on 18 carries and three receptions for 14 yards and one touchdown against the Dolphins.
“It just means the world,” Vidal said after the game. “I knew I had the opportunity to come out here and just play as hard as I can. I didn’t know what kind of opportunities I was going to get going into the game, and I was just grateful for any opportunity. And I’m blessed to have the opportunities that I had. And, you know, I just took full advantage of it. Just tried to do my best.”
Harbaugh said Vidal kept a determined attitude after landing on the practice squad at the end of the preseason.
“It’s high-level competitor,” Harbaugh said. “It’s high-level mindset of a person that doesn’t get discouraged. ‘Oh, I didn’t do this’ or ‘They got this back’ or ‘They didn’t keep me on the 53.’ I think his mindset was good: That makes me work harder, train better, listen more. And he’s really good at all those things, but you could just see it amp up. I mean, not flinch one bit and just work on getting better each day. Better today than yesterday, better tomorrow than today.
“And there was never a word said by him. It was just he was saying everything by what he did. What you do speaks so loudly you don’t even have to hear what somebody says. And that was the case with Kimani Vidal these last months and weeks and days. And that’s why I’m excited for this guy, and these other guys, too, but especially excited for Kimani. To see a guy get his opportunity, seize that opportunity and make the most of it, that’s really nothing but respect.”
In four seasons at Troy, Vidal ran for 4,010 yards and 33 touchdowns, including topping the Sun Belt Conference with 1,661 rushing yards as a senior.
“What’s been standing out has been his preparation over the last year and a half since he’s been with us,” Harbaugh said. “The attention to detail, the focus, the training, the competitive mindset that he has, I mean, the kind of shape he’s gotten himself into, he’s become a real pro and just done a great job.”
The Alabama Games of the Week are the Philadelphia Eagles-Minnesota Vikings and Washington Commanders-Dallas Cowboys contests on Sunday. In each game, the teams’ active rosters include 15 players from Alabama high schools and colleges.
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The Week 7 schedule (with all times Central and point spreads from BetMGM):
Thursday
Pittsburgh Steelers (-5.5) at Cincinnati Bengals, 7:15 p.m. (Prime Video)
Sunday
Los Angeles Rams (-3) vs. Jacksonville Jaguars in London, 8:30 a.m. (NFL Network)
New Orleans at Chicago Bears (-5), noon (WALA)
Miami Dolphins at Cleveland Browns (-2.5), noon
Las Vegas Raiders at Kansas City Chiefs (-12), noon (WIAT, WTVY, WKRG, WAKA)
Philadelphia Eagles (-2) at Minnesota Vikings, noon (WBRC, WZDX, WCOV, WDFX)
Carolina Panthers (-1.5) at New York Jets, noon
New England Patriots (-7) at Tennessee Titans, noon (WHNT)
New York Giants at Denver Broncos (-7), 3:05 p.m.
Indianapolis Colts at Los Angeles Chargers (-1.5), 3:05 p.m.
Green Bay Packers (-6.5) at Arizona Cardinals, 3:25 p.m.
Washington Commanders (-2) at Dallas Cowboys, 3:25 p.m. (WBRC, WZDX, WALA, WCOV, WDFX)
Atlanta Falcons at San Francisco 49ers (-2), 7:20 p.m. (NBC)
Monday
Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Detroit Lions (-5.5), 6 p.m. (ABC, ESPN)
Houston Texans at Seattle Seahawks (-3), 9 p.m. (ESPN)
The Baltimore Ravens and Buffalo Bills do not play in Week 7.
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