The Los Angeles Chargers star running back and Yahoo Sports’ Matt Harmon discuss the final few weeks of the regular season and how he will approach his options on and off the football field. Hear the full conversation on “Ekeler’s Edge” - part of the “Yahoo Fantasy Football Show” podcast - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.

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MATT HARMON: So you definitely want to play football next year and want to keep going at this thing?

AUSTIN EKELER: It's so hard for me to tell, man. It really comes down to what's the opportunity. Like, I want to have the best opportunity for myself. And does that lie in football? Does that lie somewhere else? Because whatever I put myself into, I'm going to be all in. And just like I am right now. Like, it consumes me, and I'm talking to my fiancee and I'm like there's this thing where it's like, OK, which way? Do I lean into football? Do I lean into going into post career?

And it really comes down to what's the situation. Is it a one-year deal? Is it a two-year deal? Like, what are we trying to do here? Is the money good or are people are like, nope, Austin you're washed. Like, this is going to be a real life for me. It's like, oh no, actually it was kind of like a fluke year the season. Didn't really go well. Like, there's some circumstances you couldn't control things, like that. So these would be the conversations that we'll be having with GM's and putting it out there.

But, like, if we find a good situation, then absolutely coming back and tearing it up again. And the running back market is also wild too. We've talked about it on here before. All the guys that are going to be flooding into the market here after this year. So who knows. Who knows. All I know is that if I do find a place and I have an advantageous opportunity come and actually come compete and make sure that, hey, yeah, they want you to be here. And it's not just like, hey, maybe come try to make the team maybe on practice squad type of thing, then absolutely. Let's run it. Let's do it.

MATT HARMON: Yeah. I think it's going to be fun. I think going to be fun to see whatever you do next, man, because I know you're going to crush it, whether it's in the NFL in a different role, or just whatever, or your business. Or hey, again, podcasting buddy, I think you got a pretty good thing going.

AUSTIN EKELER: Look, I got some other things going in the works too, you know? Yeah. In my opinion, just as me with my side hustle, I'm thinking here in the next-- by this time next year, side hustle, my experience app will be taking over the NIL space and adding structure to that entire market. So it's like things like that are going on, right, that I have a whole team that runs that.

So I'm all over the place, you know? But when it comes to my attention, it's like where is it going to go? It kind of leads with wherever that the biggest light is. There's opportunity all over. Can you identify it, can you take advantage of it, and which one do you want to put your effort into? And in football, guess what? I can't play that forever. But Matt, I can go do these side hustles for the rest of my life. So if I still have some youth left in me, and I absolutely do and want to go out there and continue to play ball and there's an opportunity to do that, like, I'm going to take advantage of it.

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