Ladd McConkey's Fantasy Football Value Falls With The Return Of Keenan Allen

Michael Fabiano | Aug 6, 2025

Veteran WR Keenan Allen is back in Los Angeles, and it's not great news for the fantasy value of Ladd McConkey. / Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

The wide receiver position was in the news on Tuesday, as Jordan Addison was suspended three games by the NFL and Keenan Allen returned to the Los Angeles Chargers.

The news on Addison was expected and already baked into his ADP and rankings for 2025 drafts. I have him ranked as the WR38 for the upcoming season, making Addison a borderline WR3/WR4 in most leagues. He'll be a flex starter upon his return.

The bigger fantasy impact is in the Allen signing, which brings with it a lot of question marks … most notably for the previously rising value of Ladd McConkey. Coming off a rookie year where he finished tied for 12th in points among wideouts, he was being picked a low-end WR1 based on current ADP data. That was too high for me, and now you’ll start to see that ADP fall over the next few weeks of the summer into September.

Wide Receivers In Greg Roman's Offense

Year	Player	Games	Rec	Yards	TDs	FPs	Rank
2011	Michael Crabteee	15	72	874	4	186	27
2012	Michael Crabteee	16	85	1105	9	250.3	15
2013	Anquan Boldin	16	85	1179	7	246	15
2014	Anquan Boldin	16	83	1062	5	219.6	18
2014	Michael Crabteee	16	68	698	4	162.2	46
2015	Sammy Watkins	13	60	1047	9	218.8	20
2015	Robert Woods	14	47	552	3	118.2	57
2016	Robert Woods	13	51	613	1	118.9	66
2019	Marquise Brown	14	46	584	7	146.4	46
2020	Marquise Brown	16	58	769	8	183	36
2021	Marquise Brown	16	91	1008	6	226.3	22
2021	Rashod Bateman	12	46	515	1	103.5	70
2022	Devin Duvernay	14	37	407	3	116.1	58
2022	Demarcus Robinson	17	48	458	2	103.8	69
2024	Ladd McConkey	16	82	1149	7	240.9	12
2024	Quentin Johnston	15	55	711	8	174.7	39
2024	Joshua Palmer	15	39	584	1	107.4	74

The real concern is the wide receiver rotation, which now has two players (McConkey and Allen) who run most of their routes inside. That’s not to suggest they can’t play out wide, but it certain muddies the waters. The Bolts also have Quentin Johnston and rookie Tre Harris in the rotation, so there’s a lot of mouths to feed.

I’d also be a bit concerned about McConkey because even as the age of 33, Allen is still a capable receiver … and he already has a rapport with Justin Herbert from his initial time with the Chargers. That could and likely will hurt McConkey’s target share.

Also keep in mind that Greg Roman’s offense has never produced two top-25 receivers in fantasy in a single season. The closest he came was last year, when McConkey was WR12 and Quentin Johnston was WR39.  Now there’s McConkey, Allen, Johnston, Harris and KeAndre Lambert-Smith … and that’s only the team’s wide receivers.

In redrafts, I’m moving McConkey down a few spots, behind wideouts like Tyreek Hill, and DK Metcalf as a No. 2 wideout. I’d add Terry McLaurin to that list too, but he’s in a contract stalemate with the Commanders and has requested to be traded.

The one winner in this move is Herbert, who gets one of his favorite targets back in Allen and now has some of the best talent around he’s had in his NFL career.