Fantasy football fans, this is what we’ve been waiting for. nfl draft Underway, and we finally get to see where the newcomer prospects are going to start their professional careers. And NFL Draft landing spots allow us to focus on fantasy football dynasty rookie draft Select value. We’re taking a look at wide receiver Ladd McConkey and how he would fit with the Los Angeles Chargers.
Throughout the draft, we’ll take a closer look at fantasy-relevant prospects, give you an overview of their strengths and weaknesses, and assess their fantasy value in both redraft and dynasty formats.
Let’s dig in.
Fantasy football rookie draft outlook
Fitz’s fantasy football outlook
The Los Angeles Chargers added a much-needed wide receiver by selecting Georgia’s Ladd McConkey with the 34th overall selection of the NFL Draft.
McConkey is a route running expert. He gets in and out of his route breaks with lightning speed, creating big cushions when he faces man coverage. McConkie criticized the defensive backs he faced in one-on-one drills at the Senior Bowl, ultimately getting those DBs to play well off the line of scrimmage so that McConkie would not embarrass them.
Although he did not have more than 58 catches or 762 receiving yards in any of his three seasons at Georgia, McConkey performed well on a per-snap basis. Last season he averaged 3.26 yards rushing per route and caught 80% of his targets. As FantasyPros NFL Draft and college football analyst Thor Nystrom noted, Georgia ran a 12-personnel, run-heavy attack and often pulled starters early during its consecutive blowout wins, which reduced McConkey’s numbers. .
McConkie does most of his work in the short and intermediate areas of the field, but with his 4.39 speed, he is capable of drawing deep balls. Due to his speed and quick feet, he is also dangerous after the catch.
At 5-11½, weighing 186 pounds, McConkie is not built to win in competitive situations. He suffered a back injury last season and can be injury prone due to his size.
Ladd McConkie should have a big opportunity to contribute right away, as the Chargers have an immediate need at receiver. They traded star Keenan Allen to the Bears and let Mike Williams walk in free agency, leaving Josh Palmer and Quentin Johnston as the top wide receivers on their depth chart. Johnston’s rookie season was an utter disaster, so more help was needed.
Although the Chargers are projected to have a great offensive attack with Jim Harbaugh as their head coach and Greg Roman as their offensive coordinator, McConkey should see a larger target share immediately, and those targets will come from Justin Herbert, who Are one of the top. Youngest quarterback in the league.
22-year-old Ladd McConkey is my WR8 among rookies and my WR34 in the overall dynasty. He is likely to be selected somewhere in the late first round of the 1QB Rookie Draft and early in the second round of the Superflex Rookie Draft.
McConkie had a predraft FantasyPros Expert Consensus Ranking of WR70 and an underdog best-ball ADP of WR59 in half-point PPR formats. I have him ranked WR52 for the redraft.
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Thor’s NFL Draft Profile and Player Comp
lad mcconkey , Georgia
5115/186 | RAS: 9.34
Comp: jordan addison
Ladd McConkie is the JJ McCarthy of the WR class: McConkie’s profile can’t be explained by collegiate counting statistics. McConkey, like McCarthy, comes from a 12-personnel, run-leaning offense for a program that slapped opponents silly and shocked starters.
A lower back strain suffered in last year’s training camp also didn’t help McConkey. He played through the pain – the kid is tough as nails – before he was rested for the last two regular season games before the epic SEC title game against Alabama.
Volume statistics – which exist in a vacuum of context – lie. Reference Oxygen is the truth whose existence is necessary. And here’s the truth about Ladd McConkey: On a per-snap basis, he was a top-3 WR in this class.
Want an absurd statement? In 2023, over 80% of balls headed McConkey’s direction were completed out of the quarterback’s hands. This wasn’t due to a diet of spoon-fed goals – McConkey’s 12.2 ADOT was exactly the same as Malik Nabors’. McConkie’s 3.26 YPRR ranks fourth among FBS prospects in this class.
A month after McConkey’s injury-filled 2023 season ended, I was munching on ice cubes on a Delta flight headed to Mobile, Alabama. I didn’t know exactly where I stood on Ladd McConkey. I knew he was good… but how good was he, really?
Over the next 48 hours, McConkey systematically destroyed all comers in a one-on-one exercise. No defensive back was safe within the city limits of Mobile. Shoot-em-up spectacle arises tank dales Last year’s show-stopping performance, when defenders began freely grabbing Dell’s jersey on the second day of practice so he wouldn’t get burned in front of NFL evaluators again. A year later, on the same field, on the same day of practice, there was McConkey.
With a sleepless night to think about their future, the DB group had lost their appetite to play Ladd McConkey one-on-one. Better to put Ladd McConkey in front of you than try your chances at hip-to-hip again. No one had the courage to come within seven yards of Ladd McConkey.
At the time, one can assume McConkey’s representatives told him the NFL had seen enough. Practice returned to normal on Thursday.
McConkey is the opposite of “the first one off the bus.” I’ll admit it freely: I had to see it in person to fully get it. He’s really only special at one thing: stripping. If you drop a defender on McConkie in man coverage, McConkie is going to shake him. It just is what it is.
This is good because McConkey is mediocre in competitive situations. It is so rare in them that it is almost not mentioned. McConkie played three-quarters of his snaps in UGA’s 2-TE system. In the NFL, like the guy I force him over, Jordan Addison, I think McConkey can play either of these, and even switch between the two on a snap-to-snap basis.
McConkie’s work in the short and intermediate sectors speaks for itself. His separation percentage during a less than 100-percent 2023 campaign was in the top three in the class. He’s sold short on the downfield stuff. On those concepts, McConkey gets off the line and leads the field with a 4.39 gas.
He keeps coming and going in the route break very suddenly. Each break origami, is a clean angle. He runs away from the crime scene at high speed. Zone coverage won’t save you. Ladd McConkey is devilishly smart against this, tearing apart coverage areas quickly and positioning himself at your Achilles heel.
McConkie’s ankle-breaking agility comes into play with the ball in his hands – he makes defenders miss and forces off-angle attempts into space. McConkie broke four more tackles than Marvin Harrison Jr. on 50 fewer receptions, and broke five fewer catches than Rome Odunze on 62 fewer catches.
McConkie doesn’t have a huge catch radius, but he is a maverick at the catch point, someone who drops to his knees for poorly thrown balls, stretches for height, and catches balls outside his frame while moving. Catches it.
When I stepped off that airplane in Mobile, Alabama, I thought Ladd McConkey would be a very good NFL slot receiver. By the time I boarded the return flight, he had revealed that theory to be full of holes. McConkie gave it a Viking funeral with a 93rd-percent flaming arrow at the NFL Combine.
McConkie doesn’t have the physical gifts that an NFL superstar has. This means he probably won’t be a superstar. But Ladd McConkey would not fail. The same cannot be said for those poor souls who make it through human coverage without any help.
Check out more NFL Draft profiles and player comps from Thor at our 2024 nfl draft guide
dynasty rookie draft rankings
Our analysts provide their latest rookie draft rankings below. And also see our expert consensus dynasty rookie draft rankings,
More Dynasty Rookie Draft Advice
- DeBrow’s Dynasty Rookie Draft Primer
- DeBrow’s Top 50 Rankings and Player Notes
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