The Road to Generational NFLSZN Wealth: Volume 1

Every year there’s a few guys in fantasy that just feel like the perfect connection of a puzzle piece. Guys who don’t come out of nowhere but are more on the side of predictable breakouts. There’s a guy in LA whose name is getting a bit of buzz this offseason and for good reason.

If you weren’t planning on investing in some piece of whatever offense Mike McDaniel ended up being hired to run, then I’m afraid you weren’t locked. I was on my hands and knees begging for the Bucs to hire him as OC, and I was furious when that Chargers notification came through. But fandom aside this is probably the 2nd best option because the answer of who to invest in for goat whales and fantasy drafts becomes simple.

The Chargers had similar problems to the Bengals when they drafted Justin Herbert. I think we all forget that Herbert threw for just above 9,300 yards and 69 TDs in his first two seasons in the NFL. That included a 5k season in 2021 where the Chargers didn’t even make the playoffs. Why? Because the defense gave up 27 PPG, better than only the Lions and Jets that season. So they eventually went through a very overdue overhaul in 2024, hiring Jim Harbaugh to play a tougher brand of football. In doing so (and bringing Greg Roman in as OC), they basically dumbed down the offense to the point where it turned Herbert into a glorified game manager. They overcorrected from the Staley days, and now a McDaniel offense should bring synergy to it all.

So that’s good news for Herbert and the whole offense. But who is it the best news for? Ladd McConkey.

He somehow shined in the Roman offense his rookie year, snagging 82 receptions for 1,149 yards and 7 TDs. His second season was frustrating, especially for fantasy owners. There were plenty of problems with this offense last season, with the static scheme of Roman only being one of them. The Chargers brought Keenan Allen back for a feel-good story sendoff season and were stuck on lining him up like he was prime Keenan and not the 34-year-old version. The Chargers offensive line was also horrendous, headlined by long-term injuries of Joe Alt and Rashawn Slater.

 It didn’t allow for the longer developing routes that we saw McConkey have success with in 2024. And while the offensive line has already taken a decent hit with Tyler Biadasz going down for the year with an injury, it should be a net positive from last year if they can stay healthy otherwise. And lastly very few of McConkey’s touches the slightest bit down the field seemed manufactured, as he just always seemed to get jump ball targets when getting deeper looks. To his credit he was very successful with those in his rookie season, but that's not ultimately his game.

So yes a lot of problems with Ladd’s role in last year’s offense. So why buy now? Well in the words of Daniel Jeremiah (NFL network analyst and Chargers commentator): “Ladd McConkey was put on this earth to play in this offense”. It goes without saying that Keenan Allen’s presence was a huge negative for Ladd and his absence vacates some volume to the tune of the 81 catches for 777 yards he racked up last year. But it also allows Ladd to be the focus of this passing game. Think about what Tyreek Hill was for McDaniel in his time in Miami. Ladd doesn’t have Tyreek’s speed (nobody does), but he’s a receiver who thrives in the slot, sees huge production increases in motion sets, and excels finding soft spots in the defense and creating YAC from those targets. He’s everything Mike McDaniel wants in a prototype of WR for his offense.

What I think McDaniel will unlock with Ladd this year is some of the explosives downfield. Like I mentioned earlier, last year’s Chargers offense kind of tried to do this but just by chucking up 1v1 contested balls every so often. An extremely inefficient way of getting a receiver like Ladd touches, and a stark difference from how McDaniel will utilize him.

The formula is simple for McConkey in this offense. No more Keenan Allen retirement tour to bog down the offense and mooch his targets. No more devil of a Greg Roman offense to underutilize his skillset. He and McDaniel are a match made in heaven. Training camp clips aren’t everything, but every clip of Ladd propaganda just like this one has shown him getting schemed looks open down the field.

Ladd getting unleashed is what brings the explosive element back to a Chargers offense that has been desperate to find it since Herbert’s rookie year. This might be your last chance to buy in on the perfect Mike McDaniel player in his first year in the system. Don’t waste it. Take his season-long yards and draft him in fantasy.