Ladd McConkey Fantasy Overview

2024 Summary

Production & Fantasy Finishes

McConkey finished his rookie season:

• 13th among WRs in total PPR points
• 19th in PPR points per game
• 12th in total half-PPR points
• 18th in half-PPR points per game
• 10th in total non-PPR points
• 20th in non-PPR points per game

Through the season’s first six games, he cracked the top 30 WRs only twice, topping out at WR18 in Week 4. McConkey finished 44th or lower three times within that span.

Week 8 found him second among all WRs in fantasy points. From that point on, McConkey finished eight of 10 weeks among the top 24 fantasy WRs. That included three top-9 finishes and a WR16 week.

Usage & Role

McConkey ranked 25th among all WRs in target share for the season (adjusted for games missed).

That aforementioned stretch from Week 8 on? Exactly the same as his full-season share: 22.9%.

What changed? The Chargers’ passing volume. Justin Herbert opened the year with just 22.8 attempts per game across the first four contests. From Week 6 on (after the bye), that jumped to 31.8 per game – 30.9 for the specific span of Week 8 on.

McConkey spent all year running primarily from the slot. According to Pro Football Focus, he spent 69.3% of his pass snaps there, with no single game dipping below 57.9%.

Not ‘Only’ a Slot Guy

That McConkey’s slot rate didn’t sit even higher might be a good sign. He led Chargers WRs in total snaps for the year, playing 73% of all offensive snaps for the regular season.

That included four games with snap shares larger than 80%, and then the rookie played a season-high 89.3% of the snaps in the playoff loss at Houston.

We’ll get more into why that matters in the 2025 section below.

Efficiency Metrics

McConkey is one of six rookie WRs over the past five seasons to average 2.30 or more yards per route on 50+ targets. Classmate Brian Thomas Jr. joined him. The other four:

• Puka Nacua
• Justin Jefferson
• Ja’Marr Chase
• Chris Olave

All four averaged more PPR points per game in their second seasons than they did as rookies.

McConkey thrived on catch efficiency. He caught 73.2% of his targets, ranking 14th among 105 WRs who drew 40+ targets.

His 14.0 yards per catch were more than you’ll typically see from a slot WR but lined up with McConkey’s 14.2 yards per catch for his college career. His 9.9-yard aDOT actually came in shorter than his final two college campaigns, but McConkey spent less than 25% of his pass snaps in the slot each of those years. He ranked just seventh among Chargers in 2024 aDOT.

McConkey’s 5.2 yards after catch per reception – according to PFF – ranked 31st among WRs.

He also checked in:

• 20th at the position in TD share, trailing Quentin Johnston among Chargers
• 30th in targets per route, slightly ahead of Johnston
• 36th in air-yards share – ahead of Johnston, despite a shorter aDOT

Offensive Context

Remember that bit above about the Chargers increasing passing volume during the season? The change was pretty drastic.

Through four weeks (before the bye), L.A. sported a 40.4% pass rate in neutral situations, and a -8.3% pass rate vs. expectation – both second-lowest in the league.

From Week 5 on, that jumped to 60.7% neutral pass rate – second only to the Bengals – and 4.0% pass rate over expectation (seventh-highest).

That swing to pass-heaviness was particularly noteworthy for HC Jim Harbaugh and OC Greg Roman, both of whom arrived with lengthy run-heavy backgrounds – including their four shared NFL seasons in San Francisco.

Injury History

McConkey missed just one game of his rookie season. A right knee sprain seemed like the primary issue, having knocked him out of the previous week’s contest.

But McConkey also carried an AC joint (shoulder) sprain into that week – an injury he managed for at least a few games.

His final college season proved a little rougher. McConkey lost four games to a back injury and another to an ankle sprain in 2023. He dealt with turf toe and knee tendinitis the year before but missed only half a game (SEC championship).

2025 Expectations

Projected Role & Competition

McConkey obviously enters his second season as the best bet to lead the Chargers in targets after doing so as a rookie. And the breakdown between slot and outside should look similar to last year.

The Chargers shed Josh Palmer while adding Mike Williams and rookie Tre Harris, both outside WRs.

Harris stands as easily the most interesting addition. How quickly he can get acclimated – and just how much he shows out in summer – will probably present the biggest challenge to McConkey’s 2025 target share. The scheme, however, could present a bigger volume challenge. (More on that in a minute.)

Supporting Cast

McConkey remains blessed with a good QB. Herbert dealt with foot and ankle injuries at the start of last season and struggled through the first month. After that, though, he delivered some of the most efficient play of his five-year career.

The third WR will most likely be Johnston, who watched McConkey pass him as a rookie and remained a modest performer despite big improvements over his rookie year.

The TE duo of Will Dissly and Tyler Conklin isn’t good enough to siphon work from the WRs.

Coaching & Offensive Scheme

This area presents arguably the biggest question for McConkey in 2025. Did the Chargers go pass-heavy after the Week 5 bye to take advantage of their quality QB once he got healthy? Or did they just not want to lean on a backfield that wasn’t very good – and dealt with injuries to the top two RBs?

The run-favoring histories of Harbaugh and Roman suggest we shouldn’t bet on L.A. again ranking near the top of the league in pass rate. Drafting RB Omarion Hampton in Round 1 – especially after signing Najee Harris in free agency – backs that up.

But how much will things swing back toward the run? We can’t know that until the season starts. Any decline, though, will challenge McConkey’s target total – and the related stats.

Production & Efficiency Trends

Since the league grew to 32 teams in 2002, we’ve had 85 instances of a WR posting a catch rate of 70% or better on 100+ targets …

• 24 WRs did so two or more times.
• There have been 16 cases of a player doing so in back-to-back seasons.
• Last year’s eight instances obviously haven’t had a chance to give us follow-up feedback.
• The list is littered with slot WRs.

McConkey obviously won’t have an easy time matching that efficiency. But he has the QB to support, plays a position that helps his chances, and can point to plenty of precedent.

Similarly, nothing in McConkey’s yardage or TD-scoring profiles looks unrepeatable. And the Chargers didn’t benefit on whole from special TD luck. The team ranked 13th in TD passes, 16th in total TDs, and 12th in passing-TD rate.