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.
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.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Ladd McConkey's Fantasy Football Value Falls With The Return Of Keenan Allen.