McConkey said he has made an effort to grow in that department, even though he’s only in his second year.<\/p>\n
Just like others helped him out as a rookie in the NFL, he’s trying to do the same in whatever way he can.<\/p>\n
“I would say I’m trying to step more into that role and be a leader,” McConkey said. “Especially for the young guys coming in, showing them what it’s about.<\/p>\n
“I had guys last year that did that for me, Josh [Palmer], DJ [Chark], [Johnston], even though they’re a only a year above, they’ve been through it,” McConkey added. “I feel like I know a little more what to expect this year, so just trying to pass that knowledge down to everyone else.”<\/p>\n
And he gets to pass that along in a position room that has the young receiver fired up.<\/p>\n
Whether it’s the additions of Mike Williams<\/a> or draft picks Tre\u2019 Harris<\/a> and KeAndre Lambert-Smith<\/a> to the room already intact, they have a lot of versatility in how they can line up in 2025.<\/p>\n That spells great news for McConkey who, while most of his damage came from the slot, can line up and find success anywhere on the field.<\/p>\n He’s more than happy to do whatever he can once again.<\/p>\n “I just want to be on the field at the end of the day,” McConkey said. “Whether that’s outside, inside, 11 personnel, 12 personnel, whatever. I just want to be out there, be able to make plays. I know my coaches are going to put me in good positions.<\/p>\n “I feel like they did a good job of that last year so my job is when they do that, just go make a play,” McConkey added. “I’m comfortable with both, so I expect to play inside and outside this year.”<\/p>\n Lal added: “We don’t see Ladd as a slot, and he hates being called a slot, so we don’t do that. Ladd can play everywhere, as can a few other guys.”<\/p>\n After a year like the one the receiver had as a rookie, the expectations are high for the 23-year-old receiver in his second season.<\/p>\n Even still, it’s not something that’s at the top of McConkey’s mind heading into 2025.<\/p>\n He continues to be as even keel as ever and have the same approach he always has \u2014 even if things have changed a lot in just a year.<\/p>\n “Tunnel vision. Put the blinders on and just keep looking ahead,” McConkey said. “I’m going to have good days, I’m going to have bad days, so don’t get too high, don’t get too low and just play my game.<\/p>\n “That’s kind of how I always approached it since I’ve been younger and it’s worked out for me. So I’m just going to keep doing that,” McConkey added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"McConkey said he has made an effort to grow in that department, even though he’s only in his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102069,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2064],"tags":[37,241,7,34,38,470,1014,262,2444,2443,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-102068","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-chargers","8":"tag-app-homepage","9":"tag-chargers","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-homepage-cp","12":"tag-homepage-headlines","13":"tag-ladd-mcconkey","14":"tag-los-angeles","15":"tag-los-angeles-chargers","16":"tag-losangeles","17":"tag-losangeleschargers","18":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114622456651216631","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}