Ladd McConkey Is The Steal Of The 2024 Draft
Going into the draft this year, the Chargers fandom (myself included) had our sights set on one person: Marvin Harrison Jr. Herbert's weapons, who were also injury liabilities, were all shipped out of town so the WR room was BARREN. Josh Palmer WR1 was just never going to be a winning strategy and they had no money to make a move in free agency. After MHJ was taken, the focus shifted to Nabers but, predictably, the Chargers picked a trench grinder in Joe Alt instead. Let me tell you, people were PISSED.
It has obviously turned out that Joe Alt is a god damn monster and one of the best RTs in football but there was still a MASSIVE need at receiver. So GM Joe Hortiz traded up and picked Ladd McConkey. As someone who doesn't watch a ton of college football, it was a little tough to get a read on him. A slightly smaller than average route technician that was coming off a tough injury year? Ok. Not quite as exciting as a MHJ, Nabers or Worthy. Well, I was wrong. McConkey is a beast that is outkicking his draft position in a major way.
On top of working the routes, this dude is also delivering more YAC than I have seen out of a chargers player in a DECADE. Every Chargers throw has gone basically the same way over that span.
1. Keenan jukes someone off the line or sits in a zone, gets the catch and immediately gets tackled.
2. Mike Williams grabs a jump ball along the sideline and immediately goes down.
Oh and one of their ACLs would get torn during that scenario too. So to have a receiver that is physically capable of making a defender miss feels like Christmas morning. Can't wait to see how the Chargers manage to fuck this up.
