Jim Nagy examines Georgia WR Ladd McConkey following return

Georgia WR Ladd McConkey made it back onto the field this weekend for the Bulldog’s 27-20 win at Auburn. To Jim Nagy, Director of the Reese’s Senior Bowl, the senior wideout picked up right where he left off when it came to their evaluation of him.

Nagy spoke highly of McConkey on ‘Andy Staples On3’ on Monday following his season debut this weekend. For starters, he said it was good to see him back out there and that he was glad to see him play like the player that they’d rated as highly as they had rated him.

“First, it was just good to see him back out there, Andy,” said Nagy. “I mean Kirby Smart made comments during the week that he was going to play and you just never know. So, when he came out during pregame, I was like, ‘Okay, this is going to happen. This is great.'”

“I’d never, like, really set my eyes on Ladd before. When I’d gone to games in the past, he wasn’t a senior. So I wasn’t paying as much attention,” Nagy added. “He’s 5’11, he’s 185 so he’s not, like, the biggest guy in the world. But he was an easy guy to like off his junior tape. He was our second graded receiver off junior tape behind Rome Odunze from Washington.”

In McConkey’s first game back, he caught four passes for 38 yards in the seven-point win. That comes after his past two seasons where he caught 89 passes for over 1,200 yards and a dozen touchdowns.

As far as a prospect, Nagy went on to say that they are as high on McConkey as they are because of his ability to layer the field as an all-around receiver.

“What you like about him is that he makes plays at all three levels,” Nagy noted. “He can take short stuff and make big gains. He’s tough enough to work intermediate and not afraid to work across the middle. And then he can go deep on you.”

“Really, the one knock last year was a couple of deep balls that he didn’t convert on that you would have liked to have seen,” pointed out Nagy. “But, other than that, any criticism we would have had off last year would have been real nitpicky.”

The Georgia offense has to be very glad to have McConkey back as a weapon for them in the passing game. Nagy was happy to see his return too because, in his eyes, he’s just a great watch on the field and when you turn on the film.

“Just a really fun player to watch on tape and it’s good to see him back out there,” Nagy said.