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The Path to a WR1 Season: Ladd McConkey (Fantasy Football)
Jul 9, 2026Kemper TrullThe Fantasy Footballers
Getting things ready
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The Chargers have been one of the most talked-about teams within the fantasy community this century, and that’s not an overstatement. It’s hard to imagine a Fantasy Mt. Rushmore without LaDanian Tomlinson (and Antonio Gates , if we are looking at things positionally). The team has been one of the more successful franchises at “changing the guard,” as they transitioned from eventual Hall-of-Fame QB Philip Rivers to perennial Pro Bowler Justin Herbert . Their RB room has progressed from fantasy stars Melvin Gordon and Austin Ekeler to Omarion Hampton . They spent a couple of early-round draft picks on Quentin Johnston (2023 1 st round) and Ladd McConkey (2024 2 nd round) to try to manage the end of Keenan Allen ’s prolific career. Despite a gaffe-riddled rookie year, QJ showed marginal development in his second season, and Ladd McConkey looked like one of the steals of the draft in 2024. Then Allen, who departed for a one-year sabbatical in Chicago in 2024, returned to Los Angeles for his swan song and mucked the whole thing up! Or did he? The narrative in the fantasy football community has been that Keenan Allen NERFed Ladd McConkey ‘s 2025 numbers, but further analysis shows there were several other factors at play ( that’s called a teaser, people!) . As of this writing, it seems like Allen (age 450 34) is officially done playing in the NFL, so the big question surrounds what the target share will look like in Los Angeles in 2026. Will Johnston continue to develop? Will Tre Harris or KeAndre Lambert-Smith take a second-year leap and command more target share? Will Oronde Gadsden or 2026 offseason acquisition, David Njoku , be featured in the passing game? What impact will new Offensive Coordinator Mike McDaniel have on this offense? And most importantly (for this article, at least), can McConkey return to his 2024 form, or was his 2025 regression a more ominous threat to his career prospects? Editor’s Note: This profile is part of our annual Path to a Fantasy WR1 Season series . For our methodology and an outline of the process, make sure you read the 2026 Path to WR1 Series Primer . Find out the full statistical projections for the Footballers Consensus WR1s in the Ultimate Draft Kit . 2025 Season Recap After finishing his rookie campaign as WR12, we were excited to see McConkey continue to develop and ascend the dynasty WR ranks in 2025. His 2025 ADP hovered between late 2 nd round and early 3 rd round (WR11-13 range). But things quickly went off the rails. After a decent Week 1 showing, with nine targets and a 6/74 stat line, McConkey strung together three straight weeks of WR50+ performances. He scored 5 TDs over the middle eight games of the season, before completely disappearing in the fantasy playoffs. Most concerning was that McConkey had six or fewer targets in every game after Week 8. YEAR PTS PTS/G GP SNAP SHARE % TGT REC CTCH% YDS Y/C TD 2024 STATS 199.9 12.5 16 74.2% 112 82 73% 1149 14 7 2025 STATS 147.9 9.24 16 79% 106 66 62% 789 12 6 The Path for 2026 What stands out to you about this table? I have to admit that I was quite surprised to see that McConkey had actually increased his snap share in 2025 and that he had only six fewer targets in 2025 than he did in 2024. The narrative all season and this offseason was that Keenan Allen was stealing snaps and targets from Ladd, and that’s not really true. McConkey’s target share did drop three percentage points, which is substantial, but his total opportunities were nearly ide…