Justin Jackson impresses early at Chargers camp

The calendar has flipped to August, which means only one thing — it’s basically football season. Never mind MLB’s trade deadline or the WNBA All-Star game; once NFL training camps start, football has America’s (or at least ESPN’s) full attention.

The Los Angeles Chargers kicked off training camp this week, and Justin Jackson has earned a bit of buzz over the team’s first few practices.

Jackson is battling for the RB3 role in LA, behind starter Melvin Gordon and second-year back Austin Ekeler. His main competitor seems to be Russell Hansbrough, a second-year back out of Mizzou.

It’s hard to discern exactly what happens at practice during training camp, but Jackson has managed to get his name in a couple of write-ups with some solid runs this week. On Monday, he had one of the better runs of the day and a photo of him carrying the ball graced the Chargers.com practice notes article.

Chargers coach Anthony Lynn had some nice things to say about JJTBC, too:

“(Justin Jackson) has eyes on the side of his head. He has really good instincts, and there’s no wonder he has so many yards over his career because he can find the soft spot in a defense, and I like that about him. I think he can win his one-on-ones. We’ll see though.”

Nothing Northwestern fans didn’t know already.

Jackson has garnered a bit of attention as a fantasy sleeper, but then again, find me a young running back whose name hasn’t been named in a sleeper article.

Best of luck to Justin as he battles for a spot on the team and a role within the offense.