Five Biggest Questions:
1. Can Bryce Young come close to justifying his 2023 hype?
2. Who will be the top-performing RB?
3. Will Diontae Johnson be a weekly fantasy starter?
4. Can Adam Thielen remain highly relevant?
5. Should any other WRs be on fantasy radars?
When the Panthers exchanged their clear-cut #1 WR and loads of draft capital to land Bryce Young, it was like watching in slow motion a kid discovering Santa Claus isn’t real. Last July I walked through the recent history of #1 overall draft picks (“a bit of a crapshoot”) and the extraordinary uphill battles the relatively diminutive Young would face as a heralded addition to a franchise lacking talent.
The 2024 version isn’t much better. Recent second rounders Terrace Marshall and Jonathan Mingo might not even crack the starting lineup. That’s not a sign of marked improvement, but rather a sign that this team keeps whiffing on draft day. It all spells trouble for Young, whose short-term fantasy relevance hinges on an immediate and significant turnaround. Could happen. Anything’s possible. But at a position with so many top-8-caliber players, Young seems destined for little more than Superflex streamability.
The running game is a mess for different reasons. The Miles Sanders experiment has been an unmitigated bust so far, though the team has him under contract for several more years. So presumably he’ll remain a veteran presence on and off the field, and perhaps his light workload last year can only help his case this year. Chuba Hubbard handled 277 touches in 2023. He had one big-volume campaign I college, which was followed by an injury-plagued final season. This is a pretty common RB trend. I would not be excited to invest in Hubbard.
That leaves rookie Jonathon Brooks, who’s likely the most talented player in this backfield, but is recovering from a torn ACL. Let’s see how he looks in early August. The most likely scenario is Hubbard earning a plurality of touches in September, with Brooks eventually becoming a weekly 12+ touch RB as the team looks ahead to 2025 (when Hubbard will be a free agent).
Through the air, everything I’m writing hinges on whether Young takes a big leap forward. While Diontae Johnson is accustomed to playing with sub-par QBs, he’s joining a receiving corps that still needs to be sized up. The ageless Adam Thielen caught 75% of his targets last season to hit 1,014 yards. His chemistry with Young makes him a near lock to contribute as long as he’s healthy. The Panthers probably overpaid for first rounder Xavier Legette, though they’ll assuredly give him plenty of run because . . . what do they have to lose?
Can Young feed three receivers per game? Probably not. The fact that Marshall and Mingo are lingering doesn’t make things any easier for managers investing in Johnson. The “best” hope is that Thielen’s soon-to-be 34-year-old frame starts to break down, and that Legette needs time to adjust to the NFL. In other words, while Johnson might have a handful of nice performances, he’s not set up to be a weekly starter—unless Young has a shockingly big turnaround.
Finally, this franchise still hasn’t figured out how to replace the long-retired Greg Olsen. If you like rolling dice, bet on rookie Ja’Tavion Sanders. We’ve seen enough from Tommy Tremble to surmise that he’ll never be rosterable in fantasy. Sanders offers enough upside to be a top-22 TE if he eventually claims the top job.
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