The Los Angeles Chargers chose UCLA running back Joshua Kelley Saturday with their first selection in the final day of the three-day 2020 NFL draft, then chose Virginia receiver Joe Reed with their second.
Kelley was the sixth player drafted in the fourth round and 112th overall choice.
The 5-foot-11-inch, 219-pound Kelley was UCLA’s MVP in both seasons he played for the Bruins. He rushed for 1,243 yards, the 10th highest-total in school history, as a redshirt junior in 2018 and 1,097 yards as a redshirt senior in 2019, the eighth running back in UCLA to record back-to-back 1,000-yard rushing seasons.
Kelley was a second-team All-Pac-12 Conference selection by the league’s coaches in 2019 and a semifinalist for the Burlsworth Trophy as the nation’s top walk-on or former walk-on player. He was chosen as the North Running Back Practice Player of the Week for the 2020 Senior Bowl.
Kelley began his college career at UC Davis, rushing for 530 yards in 2015 and 609 yards in 2016.
Kelley is a graduate of Eastside High School in Lancaster where he rushed for 1,469 yards and scored 16 touchdowns as a senior and was selected as the Golden League Back of the Year.
The Chargers used the fifth pick in the fifth round, the 151st overall selection, to draft Reed, the only player in Football Bowl Subdivision history with more than 2,700 yards in kickoff returns and a kickoff return average of more than 28 yards. The 6-foot-3-inch, 215-pound Reed led FBS players in kickoff return average in 2019, averaging 33.2 yards per return.
The Chargers also have the seventh pick in the sixth round and the sixth in the seventh round later Saturday.
The Chargers did not have a choice during Friday’s second day of the draft, having traded their second- and third-round picks to the New England Patriots on Thursday for a first-round choice, the 23rd overall selection, which they used to draft Oklahoma linebacker Kenneth Murray.
The Chargers began the draft Thursday by selecting Oregon quarterback Justin Herbert with the sixth overall choice.