{"id":470729,"date":"2026-09-21T09:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T09:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/470729\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T09:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T09:12:10","slug":"chargers-ladd-mcconkey-plays-through-pain-earns-warrior-praise-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/470729\/","title":{"rendered":"Chargers\u2019 Ladd McConkey plays through pain, earns \u2018warrior\u2019 praise \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

INGLEWOOD \u2014 Wide receiver Ladd McConkey was the poster boy for all the pain the Arizona Cardinals inflicted on the Chargers\u2019 offense in Week 1. He suffered an injured rib when Arizona\u2019s Mack Wilson Sr.<\/a> delivered a jarring hit that separated him from the football.<\/p>\n

McConkey assumed a similar position in Week 2, with two teeth knocked out of his mouth during the Chargers\u2019 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders<\/a>, a reminder of all the suffering he and his teammates absorbed during another lackluster loss to a team that was favored by oddsmakers to defeat.<\/p>\n

McConkey caught five passes for 82 yards and one touchdown against Arizona.<\/p>\n

He had another three receptions for 35 yards against Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh referred to McConkey as \u201cJust a warrior.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kind words, McConkey said when told of Harbaugh\u2019s comment, nice to hear.<\/p>\n

\u201cI appreciate that,\u201d McConkey said. \u201cI appreciate my coach having my back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Apparently, sitting out Sunday was not an option, though.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou only get so many opportunities at this game, so if I can be out there, I\u2019m going to be out there,\u201d said McConkey, who sat out once during his rookie season in 2024, when he set franchise records for first-year players<\/a> with 82 receptions for 1,149 yards, and once last season.<\/p>\n

Even if he had been 100% while playing against the Raiders, he couldn\u2019t have helped the Chargers\u2019 sputtering offense by himself. He did average 11.7 yards per reception, which included a 19-yard gain on a dart thrown by quarterback Justin Herbert in the second quarter.<\/p>\n

The completion kept alive a possession that ultimately produced running back Omarion Hampton\u2019s 1-yard touchdown run that tied the score at 7-7. Other targets were few and far between, however. Herbert was inconsistent at best while completing 15 of 27 passes for 192 yards.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like it\u2019s just that we\u2019re hurting ourselves a lot,\u201d McConkey said of an offense that fumbled six times, tossed two interceptions to go with eight penalties, including a holding call against right tackle Joe Alt while Herbert attempted a pass from his own end zone, resulting in a safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like once we can just start clicking, we\u2019ll get rolling. But nobody\u2019s happy with where we\u2019re at, so we\u2019re going to attack it.\u201d<\/p>\n

INJURY REPORT<\/p>\n

Tight ends David Njoku and Charlie Kolar were each forced from the game. Njoku sustained a knee injury and was carted from the field in the second quarter and Kolar suffered a forearm injury in the fourth. Harbaugh said he didn\u2019t have a postgame update on either player.<\/p>\n

Defensive lineman Dalvin Tomlinson injured his hamstring near the end of the third quarter. Left guard Kayode Awosika hurt his leg and was forced from the game. Safety Derwin James Jr. injured his hand in the first half<\/a>, but he was able to continue in the game.<\/p>\n

James shared the team lead with seven tackles.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were quite a few (injuries) that were reported, and that\u2019s all the information I have,\u201d Harbaugh said when asked for updates after the game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INGLEWOOD \u2014 Wide receiver Ladd McConkey was the poster boy for all the pain the Arizona Cardinals inflicted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470730,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[1333,752,74,76,75,127],"class_list":["post-470729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-los-angeles-chargers","tag-nfl","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}