Ladd McConkey — Week 1: A Touchdown, Then Hurt in the Third
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 14
McConkey led the Chargers with seven targets, five catches and 82 yards, and scored the eight-yard touchdown on third and six with 6:07 left in the third quarter that cut it to 16–14. His last play was an incompletion with 0:23 left in the third; he left with a chest injury and did not return, per Eric Smith at Chargers.com, in a 26–14 loss to the Cardinals.
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16 to seven, Cardinals, six oh seven left in the third quarter, third and six at the Arizona eight. Justin Herbert threw short right to Ladd McConkey for eight yards and the touchdown, 16 to 14. +2.6 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and 9.8 points of win probability, the chance of winning the game after the play against before it, the largest gain on any Chargers play all afternoon. It was also his last catch. His last play was third and 16 at the Chargers 18 with 23 seconds left in the third quarter, an incompletion short right, and the play-by-play notes he was injured on it. He left with a chest injury and did not return, per Eric Smith at Chargers.com; Jim Harbaugh said afterward he had no update.
The line: seven targets, five catches, 82 yards, one touchdown, five first downs, +6.8 expected points on the targets — the most by any Chargers receiver — and a longest of 23. Five targets before halftime for four catches and 74 yards; two after, the touchdown and the incompletion. Three of the catches came on the drive that answered Arizona's opening touchdown: 18 deep middle on second and eight with eight 13 left in the first, 23 deep middle on second and 10, 19 short middle to the Arizona 15 — 60 yards on three throws, and Omarion Hampton scored three plays later. The fourth was 14 yards short right with five 49 left in the half, on the possession that reached the seven and ended with a fourth-down sack; the incompletion from the 10 on that possession was his too. Two third-down targets, one conversion, the touchdown.
Seven targets led the team: six each to Quentin Johnston and Tre Harris, five to David Njoku, two to Oronde Gadsden and one to Derius Davis, none without a receiver. He led the team in receiving yards too, 82 to Njoku's 58. The Chargers ran 10 pass plays before halftime and 20 after, and McConkey's targets went five and two; every one of his five catches went for a first down. After his last snap Herbert threw 12 more times.
Back in June the preview made no call on McConkey — the twentieth receiver at pick 44 after an injury-marred 30-fifth-per-game season, with the bounce-back real and already priced in, and health named first and always as the thing to watch, then a target share north of 20 percent. Sunday had both halves of it: seven of 27 throws, the touchdown, the most valuable targets on the team, and then a chest injury with a quarter and 23 seconds left. This show will not guess at what the injury means; it will say the June read put health first for a reason, and the first game landed on it. The Chargers are home to the Raiders on Sunday the twentieth.
_Data via nflverse._
When Ladd McConkey's week moves the numbers, you'll know — every episode, in one weekly email.
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