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When players take the field Saturday at NRG Stadium, Houston Texans cornerback Kamari Lassiter and Los Angeles Chargers wide receiver Ladd McConkey will line up for their first NFL playoff game, likely across from each other, as opponents.
The goal will be to stop their counterpart from producing across the line of scrimmage, just like it was on the practice fields in Athens, Ga., when the two were teammates at Georgia.
“Ladd, that’s my dog,” Lassiter said. “We go way back. We had some good battles in college and Saturday, I expect nothing less.
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“It’s just everything coming full circle. I’m not really excited to play against him, per se, but just excited to see him at this level and see myself at this level because that’s something we dreamed of.”
Those dreams have been fulfilled and then some so far in their early careers. Lassiter allowed the lowest completion percentage (45.6%) by defenders with at least 50 targets against them this season, and his three interceptions and 10 passes defended are tied for sixth-most among rookies. McConkey’s 1,149 receiving yards were 10th-most in the league and led the Chargers, while his 14.0 yards per catch ranked fourth among rookies.
But that professional stardom felt far away at their first encounter. When Lassiter arrived at Georgia for summer practices in 2021 as a true freshman, McConkey was still fighting to get off the scout team after redshirting his freshman season. Lassiter found himself in a similar spot the next fall as his snaps were limited mostly to special teams.
The lack of defensive play in his first year frustrated Lassiter. But he found inspiration in McConkey as the receiver broke into Georgia’s offense and was second on the team in catches (31). Lassiter saw the hard work that it took for his teammate to do so and aimed to replicate it on the other side of the ball.
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“Hard work and just the will to not be denied,” Lassiter said of McConkey’s qualities he mirrored. “I had to get it out of the mud as well. I saw him do it just from when I got there, he was paving his way and he had a great season and he had two more good seasons right after that.”
As McConkey’s strong work ethic continued to create strong play in 2022, Lassiter saw his pay dividends as well. The sophomore started all 15 games at defensive back for the Bulldogs en route to a second consecutive national championship. Fran Brown, Georgia’s defensive backs coach at the time, said those starts were earned by his efforts to improve.
“You just saw someone who had all the tenacity,” said Brown, now the head coach at Syracuse. “He wanted to learn every day. He showed up to extra meetings. He challenged me to come work him out early. He just always wanted to work. He’s just about work, work, work.”
That work spilled out from the meeting room onto the football field, where Lassiter was determined to create challenges to make himself better. He decided that McConkey would be his biggest test and pitted himself against the receiver. McConkey met Lassiter’s affront and thus began a battle that went virtually unbroken for the next two seasons.
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“Those two would always go at it against each other,” Brown said. “When it was time to do one-on-ones, when it was time to do that stuff, those guys wanted to go against each other. They wanted to compete and cover and run routes against them, and they really wouldn’t want to go against other guys.”
Lassiter had plenty of competition to hone his skills against, as Georgia’s receiver corps then included current Indianapolis Colts receiver Adonai Mitchell and a plethora of top recruits. But he said he knew McConkey’s unique skills and determination presented the biggest opportunity for him to grow, and he never wanted limit his potential improvement.
“Ladd is a one-on-one demon,” Lassiter said. “The elite route-running skills, good speed and just finds a way to get open. I just wanted to go against the best. And anytime we were doing one-on-ones, I knew that he was one of the best. So why not go up against him?”
While the corner deemed McConkey was the best, Brown said that Lassiter became even better. The two traded victories in the one-on-one drills, each more competitive than the previous. McConkey would beat Lassiter with an elite route or sometimes a “spectacular, crazy catch” that would have Brown telling his defensive back “Yeah, there’s nothing you can do about that.” Other times, Lassiter would be in lockstep with McConkey to cover him up or use his own athleticism to break up an acrobatic catch by the receiver.
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Brown said the latter would happen slightly more than the former as he estimated Lassiter would win six out of every 10 reps against McConkey. Although, as Lassiter’s position coach and a former NFL cornerback himself, Brown admitted he was a little biased in favor of his pupil.
To Lassiter, his battles with McConkey were never about the result of the play. It was more the lessons to be had afterward. The two would get together following every matchup and discuss their techniques and reasonings, in turn giving each other insight on their play from one of the best at the opposing position.
“It was always about how you use what you learned from the rep, whether you won or lost, to apply to the next rep,” Lassiter said. “He beat me some, I beat him some. But we were always going back and forth with each other. Like what did you do on that rep? It wasn’t really about success or not. It was really just getting each other better.”
The reformative matchups helped Lassiter have his best season in 2023. The corner led Georgia with eight pass breakups and earned second-team All-SEC. Lassiter’s opportunities against McConkey were reduced when the receiver missed five games due to injury. But as both declared for the 2024 NFL draft, they were determined to keep pushing each other to prepare themselves for the pros. Although Brown believed they had already done a lot of that with the Bulldogs.
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“What Kamari and them did on gameday, the practice was way different than that. It was much more competitive,” Brown said. “You just always watched those guys going to work so it’s no surprise that doing what they’re doing.”
Lassiter and McConkey trained together in Florida alongside fellow Georgia teammate Javon Bullard as they got ready for the NFL draft combine. There the duo’s relationship grew stronger off the field, as Lassiter said McConkey became “one of my good friends.”
McConkey shined in the predraft process, shooting up big boards after displaying his athleticism and running a 4.39 40-yard dash. The experience was the opposite for Lassiter, who sparked speed concerns after not running the 40 in Indianapolis and a slow time during Georgia’s pro day.
The display might have knocked Lassiter out of the first round, and despite his strong performance, McConkey didn’t have his name called on Day 1, either. Neither would have to wait long, however, as McConkey was picked by the Chargers with the 34th overall pick and Lassiter went to Houston eight spots later. The slow times were not worrisome for the Texans as they knew the cover skills Lassiter presented would translate to the pros. That knowledge came from the corner’s game tape. But possibly the biggest foretelling of NFL success was the reps against a future pro unseen at Georgia’s practices.
“Ladd would just run those routes, and there were things that you just couldn’t do against them,” Brown said. “But Kamari would go up and be the only one at times that could stick Ladd. No one else could really stick him but Kamari.”
No one has really been able to “stick” McConkey since either. His average target separation of 3.1 yards is tied for second-best among rookies and he hasn’t been held without a catch in his 16 games this season. Lassiter among others will be tasked with limiting that separation, and the corner has the prior knowledge and experience to help his teammates do so. Though he said there’s no special message to impart on his fellow defensive backs as they attempt to cover McConkey for the first time.
“For the guys, everything is on tape,” Lassiter said. “So I don’t have to tell the guys much about him. They know from what’s on tape what he does. He’s really good at what he does. You just got to bring your skills.”
Rookie receiver Ladd McConkey has the Chargers pointed toward a date with the Texans.
John Locher/Associated Press
While Lassiter thinks the film holds the answers to McConkey’s game, Houston’s coaching staff said it poses questions on how to guard the elusive receiver. Coach DeMeco Ryans said McConkey “sticks out” when watching the Chargers, while defensive coordinator Matt Burke called him a “really good player.”
“Man, he’s an elite route runner,” Ryans said. “Very shifty and moves all over the place. He’s all over the field making plays for them, catching a lot of footballs and he’s a dynamic player. I think he has a very bright future in this league.”
“He has it all in his bag,” Burke said. “In breaks, out breaks, a lot of option stuff with him. So, it’s hard to just pick one leverage with him because he can run it all. He’s obviously kind of became the go-to guy for them, especially in some of the critical situations. We’ll just see how we take care of him.”
For Brown, he hopes Houston takes care of McConkey by putting Lassiter on him incessantly, just like he did in practices at Georgia. While he’s excited and happy for both players, Brown said he’s rooting for the Texans and Lassiter to have a big game. He even had a prediction for how his former corner’s day would go against his college teammate.
“Hopefully, he gets like eight passes thrown to him and I need Kamari to win 5-3,” Brown said. “Kamari wins 5-3 with a pick.”
When told of Brown’s prediction, Lassiter laughed and wasn’t surprised at the specificity of his former coach’s prognosis. He also appreciated the endorsement for the biggest game of his professional career to date. Though Lassiter has been preparing for a moment like this for years, way before he started growing and competing with McConkey.
“I just feel like I was built for it since I was a youngin’,” Lassiter said. “The intensity just cranks up with everything going on. It’s just really about executing when I’m going out there. The plan is to win.”
