Herbert's passes rerouted: See how McConkey, Johnston, and emerging talents could dominate the Chargers' 2026 target share.
A thing that's talked about by NFL coaches and players often, but often isn't written about as much, is target share. Players, agents, coaches and fantasy football dorks focus on more than just about anything else.
Target share is exactly what it sounds like. It's a player's share of the targets. Or, to be more blunt, it's the percentage of passes thrown by Justin Herbert to a particular player.
Some sites track target share based on the percentage of total targets and some do it based on a player's average targets per game played, trying to remove the injury noise, and that's what we're looking at below.
Here's what the Chargers' target share looked like in 2025:
21.7% - Keenan Allen
21.3% - Ladd McConkey
19.0% - Quentin Johnston
15.2% - Oronde Gadsden
12.4% - Omarion Hampton
7.4% - Tre Harris
There are people below that (Will Dislley got 4.6% of Herbert's throws last year!) but they're small enough that they don't really warrant any sort of planning or discussion.
A couple of things worth discussing about 2025's target share before we move on to speculating about 2026:
- The guy who led the team in target share is no longer on the Chargers. He's a free agent, he might be back, but as of right now that 21.7% drops to zero.
- Both McConkey (24.5%) and Johnston (21.7%) had a higher target share in 2024 than in 2025.
In theory, you would expect the numbers for Hampton and Gadsden to go up in their sophomore seasons. Gadsden, in particular, will likely be counted on as a major third-down and red zone target if Keenan Allen isn't in blue and gold in 2026.
Brenan Thompson, the 4th Round speedster that Mike McDaniel was so excited for the Chargers to draft, has to be factored in here at some point.
Speaking of McDaniel, let's compare real quick to how he spread around targets for the Miami Dolphins in 2024 (pre-Tyreek injury):
21.9% - Tyreek Hill
16.6% - Jaylen Waddle
15.6 - De'Von Achane
11.9% Nick Westbrook-Ikhine
10.1% - Alexander Mattison
While you may say that this shows a tendency for McDaniels to want to spread the love in his system, I see it as a sign that he really trusts throwing the ball to running backs. Although, maybe that changes with Justin Herbert's ability to sling it downfield.
Let me take a guess as to what this year's target share will look like for the Chargers:
22.0% - Ladd McConkey
21.0% - Quentin Johnston
17.0% - Oronde Gadsden
16.0% - Omarion Hampton
11.5% - Tre Harris
10.5% - Brenan Thompson
That feels right. It also feels like this team may have run out of a role for Keenan Allen once they drafted Thompson.