I watched all of Ladd McConkey’s targets a few months ago, but having just watched all of the targets of four other comparable rookie prospects, I wanted to queue him up for another look while those guys were fresh in my mind. These are the guys, after all, that we’ll be picking between at key stages of drafts.
McConkey is quick, looking like he might develop into a clutch slot receiver. Though as I worked through his plays, I’ll concede that most of his work at Georgia was as a more traditional outside receiver. I saw plenty of plays where they had three receivers, with somebody else lined up in the slot.
He's definitely quick. He seems to snap off his routes more quickly than other receivers. And it’s quickness that’s been officially measured; he ran a 3.97 on the short-shuttle drill at the combine. I saw in a Julian Edelman book a few years ago that when the Patriots were working him out at Kent State, their scout had him run that drill and didn’t believe his stopwatch when Edelman clocked in at about 4 seconds. So the scout had him run it again, and it was that drill that probably caused the Patriots to use a late-round pick on him (Edelman was a quarterback in college).
In the 2023 season, I logged three plays where it was third down, with McConkey making laser-sharp cuts to the sideline to catch balls to keep drives alive.
My favorite play of the season was a really cool stop-and-go route where he froze the defensive back, who was likely getting ready to try to stick with McConkey on one of those quick cuts. McConkey instead went downfield for what should have been a 43-yard touchdown (the ball was underthrown, so it ended up at the goal line instead).
But on second viewing of McConkey’s work, it wasn’t as impressive as I remembered it. He’s not a burner. He ran 4.39 at the combine, which is a solid enough time, but it’s not speed that scares anyone. He’s a smaller receiver (6-0, 185) and doesn’t have that separator burst. In the Florida game, there’s a bomb where he’s got a step and the ball is hanging up there for a long time, but he’s unable to find that extra step to go get it. And there are a couple of other long ball attempts where he’s just well covered.
While McConkey is quick, I saw him get no separation on an inside route against Terrion Arnold (Alabama’s All-American CB) that was comfortably knocked down.
McConkey isn’t a contested ball catcher. His hands are fine, but I don’t envision him as anything special at boxing people out or pulling the ball out of other people’s hands. Keon Coleman, Ricky Pearsall and Roman Gabriel all had an insane, hard-to-believe reception last year. McConkey didn’t have one of those.
I saw it written that he dropped 2 passes last year (and 6 the previous season). For last year, one drop came on what would have been a 27-yard catch against Vanderbilt, with a defender in the area. I think the other came on a what would have been a 13-yard touchdown against Ole Miss. On that play, the defender was on him closely but never got his head around, with McConkey failing to hold it as it whistled by the head of the defender (not an easy catch).
McConkey has some after-the-catch chops. I logged 5 plays where he picked up over 15 yards after getting the ball in his hands. And there was another play where he was going to throw a pass but instead pulled it down and went across field for a 27-yard TD run. But I will stop short of putting McConkey in that rare class of receiver who’s a real weapon once the ball is in his hands. (I’m a pessimist; I’m not ready to promise he'll be one of the top 20 YAC receivers in the league.) I logged two plays where they threw him short balls on third downs, with him unable to get the yards to move the sticks.
What makes McConkey appealing, for our fantasy purposes, is the situation he’s in. The Chargers have a franchise quarterback, and they don’t have much else at wide receiver. That makes McConkey more likely than any of these other receivers I’ve been looking at recently to lead his team in receiving.
But I watched Roman Wilson yesterday. To me, he looks similar to McConkey, and he went over a round and a half later. I wonder if the Chargers would have used their early second-round pick on McConkey if they’d known they could have picked up Wilson later.
Jim Harbaugh, of course, coached Wilson at Michigan. He’s more knowledgeable than I am about Wilson’s strengths and weaknesses. But I don’t see a big difference between those receivers myself. McConkey to me looks more like a receiver who should have been selected in the late second or early third round. But given that situation, I expect I’ll be picking McConkey in some leagues this year.
Just 36 targets for McConkey last year, with him missing six games with injuries.
In the breakdown below, “BLOS” = plays where the ball was caught behind the line of scrimmage. Short = 0-9 yards, Medium = 10-19 yards, Long = 20-plus. “YAC” equals yards after the ball is in the receiver’s hands (with catches behind the line of scrimmage by definition always having more YAC than official yards).
| McCONKEY RECEIVING BREAKDOWN | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Range | Tgt | No | Yds | Avg | TD | YAC |
| BLOS | 7 | 7 | 43 | 6.1 | 0 | 58 |
| short | 8 | 8 | 80 | 10.0 | 0 | 32 |
| medium | 15 | 12 | 254 | 21.2 | 1 | 84 |
| long | 6 | 3 | 103 | 34.3 | 1 | 12 |
| Total | 36 | 30 | 480 | 16.0 | 2 | 186 |
| Official | -- | 30 | 478 | 15.9 | 2 | -- |
| LADD McCONKEY'S 2023 PLAYS | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opp. | Tgt | No | Yds | Range | Comment |
| at Auburn | 1 | 1 | 11 | medium | cuts to sideline to convert 3rd&9 |
| at Auburn | 1 | 1 | 17 | medium | cuts to sideline to convert 3rd&6 |
| at Auburn | 1 | 0 | 0 | long | well covered on 27-yard attempt |
| at Auburn | 1 | 1 | 11 | medium | cuts to sideline to convert 3rd&10 |
| at Auburn | 1 | 1 | 3 | BLOS | quick throw outside, ordinary YAC |
| Kentucky | 1 | 1 | 11 | short | stops and turns for 8, adds 3 YAC |
| at Vanderbilt | 1 | 1 | 31 | medium | open in middle for 15, 16 of ordinary YAC |
| at Vanderbilt | 1 | 1 | 14 | medium | settles for 10, ordinary YAC |
| at Vanderbilt | 1 | 1 | 8 | short | open after quarterback rollout |
| at Vanderbilt | 1 | 1 | 6 | short | crossing underneath, short on 3rd&8 |
| at Vanderbilt | 1 | 0 | 0 | long | covered on contested long ball, drop |
| Florida | 1 | 1 | 17 | medium | catches despite close coverage |
| Florida | 1 | 1 | 41 | medium | open in middle for 17, adds 24 YAC for TD |
| Florida | 1 | 1 | 7 | BLOS | quick outside, 9 YAC |
| Florida | 1 | 0 | 0 | long | either a step too slow or throw slightly off |
| Florida | 1 | 1 | 8 | short | settles at sticks to convert 3&5 |
| Florida | 1 | 1 | 11 | short | settles for 7 underneath, ordinary YAC |
| Florida | 1 | 1 | 54 | medium | open for 15 on 3rd&11, adds 39 YAC |
| Missouri | 1 | 1 | 11 | medium | quick inside throw for 10 |
| Missouri | 1 | 1 | 17 | medium | open, bobbles & re-catches on the ground |
| Missouri | 1 | 1 | 8 | short | crossing underneath, short on 3rd&11 |
| Missouri | 1 | 0 | 0 | medium | open on 15 yd att, throw off target |
| Missouri | 1 | 1 | 17 | BLOS | quick throw, 21 YAC after spin move |
| Missouri | 1 | 1 | 33 | long | open for leaping catch down the middle |
| Missouri | 1 | 1 | 0 | BLOS | quick throw outside, sniffed out |
| Missouri | 1 | 1 | 5 | BLOS | quick throw outside, ordinary YAC |
| Mississippi | 1 | 0 | 0 | medium | covered on end zone throw; had a chance |
| Mississippi | 1 | 1 | 29 | long | down the seem for TD, open |
| Mississippi | 1 | 1 | 6 | short | settles underneath for easy catch |
| Mississippi | 1 | 1 | 41 | long | wide open on underthrown stop-and-go route |
| Mississippi | 1 | 1 | 5 | BLOS | quick throw outside, ordinary YAC |
| Mississippi | 0 | 0 | 0 | run | 11 yards on end-around |
| v. Alabama | 1 | 1 | 15 | medium | cuts outside for sideline grab |
| v. Alabama | 1 | 0 | 0 | long | scramble drill; almost makes diving 24 rec |
| v. Alabama | 1 | 1 | 6 | BLOS | quick outside, ordinary YAC |
| v. Alabama | 1 | 0 | 0 | medium | well covered by All-American; knocked down |
| v. Alabama | 1 | 1 | 15 | medium | catches slant near the goal line |
| v. Florida St. | 1 | 1 | 22 | short | turns for 6-yd rec, nice moves on 16 YAC |
| v. Florida St. | 0 | 0 | 0 | run | opts out of gadget pass, crossfield 27 TD |
—Ian Allan