2025 Carolina Panthers Fantasy Preview: Crunch time for Bryce Young
Panthers head coach Dave Canales had one job as Carolina's head coach in 2024: Fix Bryce Young. He made the decision to bench the former No. 1 overall pick by Week 3, seemingly sealing the fate of the Bama passer. Young eventually returned to the lineup after Andy Dalton suffered a thumb injury, giving him a second lease on life as the starter. Young's time on the bench served him well and he finally started to turn the corner at the end of the year, giving Panthers fans hope for the 2025 season.
2024 Carolina Panthers Stats (Rank)
Points per game: 20.1 (23rd)
Total yards per game: 298 (29th)
Plays per game: 58.4 (31st)
Dropbacks per game: 39.2 (17th)
Dropback EPA per play: -0.04 (26th)
Rush attempts per game: 24.1 (27th)
Rush EPA per play: -0.04 (11th)
Bryce Young gets on track
Young was a disaster out of the gates in 2023. He ranked 22nd in completion percent over expected and 29th in EPA per play among 30 qualified quarterbacks. Frank Reich was fired midseason and the Panthers landed the first overall pick… which was in the hands of Chicago via Carolina's trade up for Young. The meltdown continued into the 2024 season and Young was benched after two games. Canales was put in an impossible situation, choosing between losing the locker room with more dreadful Young starts or cutting bait on the player he was tasked with fixing. He went with the former, granting Andy Dalton five starts before he injured his thumb in a car accident. Young came back better than ever, went 4-6 to close out the year, and took both Super Bowl participants to the brink with one-score losses to Kansas City and Philadelphia.
While the Panthers didn't solve all of their problems on offense, Young and Canales made herculean strides by the end of the season. The same can't be said for DC Ejiro Evero's defense. Carolina ranked dead last in EPA per play allowed. They ranked 32nd against the run and 31st against the pass. Evero was a rising star in the coaching ranks and Canales chose to retain him from Reich's staff after the latter was canned. To Evero's defense, the Panthers didn't spend one of their first two picks on defense for three consecutive drafts before this year. Their investments in free agency have also been focused on offense, leaving the cupboard bare for Evero. Still, if his side of the ball doesn't improve in 2025, he will be looking for work elsewhere next offseason.
Passing Game
QB: Bryce Young, Andy Dalton
WR: Tetairoa McMillan, Jalen Coker
WR: Adam Thielen, Hunter Renfrow
WR: Xavier Legette, David Moore
TE: J'Tavion Sanders, Tommy Tremble
Young's late-season resurgence was the story of the season for Panthers fans, and it was just as real in the spreadsheets as it was on tape. He was PFF's No. 7 graded passer from Week 8 onward. He had the second-highest Big Time Throw rate over that stretch and scored five rushing touchdowns in his final six games.
Bryce Young knew it. pic.twitter.com/PPM4OwknfJ
Young was not making throws with this kind of confidence as a rookie. His top receivers down the stretch were 34-year-old Adam Thielen and UDFA rookie Jalen Coker, both of whom missed three games. Despite drastically increasing his ability to create explosive plays, Young didn't concede more turnovers or sacks amidst his breakout. His pressure to sack rate of 14.9 percent and Turnover Worthy Play rate of 2.3 percent were both below his career averages. The sample of Young turning the corner is small, but the impact was massive and earned him a spot at the back of the QB2 ranks in early fantasy drafts.
Tetairoa McMillan was brought in with the eighth overall pick to be a true alpha for Young. As a true junior, McMillan ranked second in the country in receiving yards (1,319) while averaging 2.9 yards per route run. He earned 472 yards on deep targets in 2024, the third-most for a Power Four wideout. As a sophomore in 2023, McMillan racked up 533 yards on intermediate targets (10-19 yards downfield), the highest mark among P4 wideouts. McMillan finds himself in contested situations more often than you would like to see from a target dominator, but he wins those high-leverage looks at a high clip, giving him the 'always open' factor.
The aforementioned Thielen missed seven games with a hamstring injury but was as good as ever when on the field. He rebounded in 2023 after a few stagnant years in Minnesota and upped the ante in 2024, averaging 2.1 yards per route run with a 17-game pace of 82 catches for 1,046 yards and nine scores. Thielen isn't a fun click, but he's the perfect WR4/5 for fantasy managers who want to load up on rookies and other high upside bets.
With Thielen penciled in for a heavy dose of slot work and McMillan guaranteed a starting role, Coker and Xavier Legette are fighting for the final position in three-receiver sets. Carolina was counting on Legette to be an immediate playmaker after spending the No. 32 overall pick on him. He labored through toe, wrist, and shoulder injuries en route to 497 yards at a dreadful 1.2 yards per route run. Legette's stiff route-running was an issue and he failed to show anything after the catch. He was a high-risk prospect who showed only the floor as a rookie. Coker was a hidden gem in Charlotte, nearly matching Legette's yardage output on 139 fewer routes. PFF graded him as their No. 5 rookie. The UDFA status will follow Coker into his second season, making Legette a better bet for routes early in the season, even if the former is a more exciting bet heading into year two.
There isn't much happening at tight end on this roster. Rookie J'Tavion Sanders split work with Tommy Tremble as a rookie and will likely do so again this year. Sanders will also have to keep fifth-round rookie Mitchell Evans at bay. Sanders is worth a dart throw in deep best ball leagues but isn't near the redraft radar.
Running Game
RB: Chuba Hubbard, Rico Dowdle, Trevor Etienne, Raheem Blackshear
OL (L-R): Ikem Ekwonu, Damien Lewis, Austin Corbett, Robert Hunt, Taylor Moton
Carolina entered the 2024 season expecting Chuba Hubbard to hold down the starting job until second-round rookie Jonathon Brooks was ready to take over. Brooks was coming back from the torn ACL he suffered in his final season at Texas and was expected to be the team's future at running back. Instead, he tragically suffered another torn ACL after just nine carries. The injury paved the way for Hubbard to see the bulk of the backfield work for the entire season. Hubbard was one of four backs to see over 80 percent of their team's running back carries last year. He made good on the role with a 250/1,195/10 rushing line and strong efficiency marks. Pro Football Focus graded him as a top-10 runner with an equally impressive 3.5 yards after contact per attempt. He was even more dominant in NFL Next Gen's data with an NFL-high 51.2 percent success rate and 1.16 rush yards over expected per carry. Hubbard did it all on the ground. He was explosive, elusive, and consistent. The Panthers rewarded him with a four-year, $33.2 million contract midseason. Brooks has already been ruled out for 2025 and the Panthers are returning all five starting offensive linemen from last year. Hubbard isn't much of a threat as a pass-catcher out of the backfield, but his rushing workload and efficiency should put him in the RB1 conversation this summer.
Carolina signed Rico Dowdle off a breakout season in Dallas and drafted pass-catching specialist Trevor Etienne on Day Three to round out their backfield. Dowdle stepped up last year with 1,000 rushing yards and solid peripherals, but the NFL didn't buy into the breakout on the open market. The Cowboys let him walk and Carolina only gave him a one-year, $2.75 million deal. Dowdle averaged a measly .88 yards per route run and was a good but not great runner. He was likely viewed as a two-down backup by GMs, including Dan Morgan of Carolina. Etienne peaked at 131 carries and hit 20 carries in a game once during three years of college ball. He did, however, catch 32 passes in 10 games as a junior at Georgia. Etienne could work himself into a role on passing downs as a rookie, but fantasy managers shouldn't expect to see much of him early in the season.
2025 Carolina Panthers Win Total
DraftKings Over/Under: 6.5
Pick: Over (-125)
The Panthers are doing all the right things to turn their franchise around. After their No. 1 overall pick flopped as a rookie, they went out and got him one of the league's best offensive minds as his next head coach before bolstering the line in free agency. When Young showed promise at the end of his second season, first-year GM Dan Morgan doubled down on his ascent by spending the No. 8 overall pick on a wide receiver. If any team was going to make the leap from basement dweller to .500 this year, it would be the Panthers.
Matthew Berry looks at Tetairoa McMillan joining the Carolina Panthers and breaks down why the former Arizona receiver is entering a favorable fantasy setup in Dave Canales' offense.
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