‘My favorite play that I made last year, we were playing the Saints’
This is brutal. The always-divisive NFL Top 100 Players of 2025 list kicked off on Monday, and the controversial ranking — voted on by the players themselves — starts with the New Orleans Saints in a starring role. Unfortunately, they were on the wrong side of it.
“My favorite play that I made last year, we were playing the Saints,” began Los Angeles Chargers wide receiver Ladd McConkey, last season’s 34th overall pick from the Georgia Bulldogs. Now he’s the 100th-ranked player in the league, at least according to this year’s list. It’s a rough look for Alontae Taylor. He got up high and tried to fight with McConkey at the catch point, but he couldn’t find the ball, and the receiver took off with Taylor falling to the turf. After Taylor got back to his feet, dusted himself off, and tried to chase him down, well. We’ll let McConkey tell it.
“I was in the slot, it was kind of like a little stop-and-go deal,” McConkey continued. “But he was pressed, so, yeah, it kind of ended up turning into an inside fade from the slot. Justin (Herbert) gave me a chance. Kind of caught a little, like, back-shoulder type deal. Made a couple (tackles) miss and went and scored.”
Taylor ended up on the ground twice on this play, once at the catch and again after his leap in pursuit came up too short. They say you have to have a short memory to play cornerback in the NFL, and plays like this are proof of it. But it’ll be hard to forget a low moment like this.
And the Saints are putting a ton of pressure on Taylor’s shoulders going into 2025. He’s expected to play a starring role in Brandon Staley’s defense, lining up out wide when they run from a base set while moving inside to the slot when they go to nickel or dime personnel. It’s the same role that Jalen Ramsey thrived in before, but those are big shoes for Taylor to fill. Last year, Pro Football Focus charting found that Taylor allowed the most receiving yards among all the NFL’s cornerbacks (998). He was tied for fourth-most a year before (836), his first full season as a starter. Now entering a contract year, Taylor, the former 49th overall draft pick, must step up and end up with more highlights of his own while being featured in fewer of his opponents’ highlight reels.