Chargers News: Surprise LA Rookie Draft Pick Emerges with Top-10 OROY Odds

Could he contend for OROY?

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Los Angeles Chargers second-round pick Ladd McConkey has surprisingly good odds to win the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year Award. The rookie wide receiver out of Georgia heads in the 2024 season with +2500 odds to win, tied for the ninth-best odds. McConkey, Chicago Bears WR Rome Odunze, Buffalo Bills WR Keon Coleman, and Jacksonville Jaguars WR Brian Thomas Jr. are all tied with +2500 odds, per DraftKings Sportsbook.

Here are the eight players who rank ahead of these four receivers in the OROY odds:

• Chicago Bears QB Caleb Williams: +250 odds

• Washington Commanders QB Jayden Daniels and Arizona Cardinals WR Marvin Harrison Jr.: +650 odds

• Minnesota Vikings QB J.J. McCarthy: +800 odds

• New York Giants WR Malik Nabers: +1400 odds

• Kansas City Chiefs WR Xavier Worthy and Denver Broncos QB Bo Nix: +1600 odds

• New England Patriots QB Drake Maye: +1800 odds

McConkey's odds are relatively high for the second-round receiver, especially with the amount of quarterbacks and receivers taken early in this draft. Where McConkey has an advantage over some of his other competition at receiver is the Chargers are lacking a No. 1 receiving threat following the departures of Mike Williams and Keenan Allen.

McConkey certainly has the chance to take over that role as the other primary Chargers receivers are D.J. Chark, Joshua Palmer, and Quentin Johnston, none of whom have had a high-volume role in an offense recently.

For McConkey to seriously contend for the role, he will need to amp up the production he displayed in college. While college football holds shorter seasons, McConkey had a career-high of 762 receiving yards at Georgia. Even with a couple more games of production, this would not be enough to contend for the OROY award in most seasons.

Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua even set the NFL's rookie receiving yards record last year and still fell short of winning OROY.

Even if McConkey has a phenomenal season, he has loads of competition to contend for the award. Receivers like Odunze, Nabers, and Harrison Jr. each went for over 1,200 years last year, and Nabers and Harrison Jr. could easily do the same as their teams also don't hold much-receiving competition. In addition, quarterbacks like Jayden Daniels and Caleb Williams are top contenders for the award, especially if either leads their team to the playoffs as a rookie or sets a record.

In the unlikely scenario that McConkey upsets to become the OROY, he would be the first Charger to win the award since his quarterback, Justin Herbert, did in 2020 after setting the rookie passing touchdowns record.

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