Entering his fourth professional season, Bryce Young didn’t take the massive fantasy leap many hoped for last year, despite leading Carolina to an NFC South division title. He set career highs across the board in 2025 by completing 63.6% of his passes for 3,011 yards and throwing 23 touchdowns, but the underlying metrics highlight a severely capped fantasy ceiling.
Should You Draft Bryce Young in Fantasy Football?
If you’re drafting Young, you’re playing in an ultra-deep league or a very specific format where every quarterback in the league is drafted. By all means, he is going to be one of them.
Carolina is still trying to decide if he’s the guy for the future, so I do expect him to get the majority of starts. Barring injury, I don’t see why he wouldn’t start 17 times this year. If it’s a superflex or two-quarterback league, be my guest. He’s a QB3, whatever. He’s not being drafted normally in redraft leagues, and I think that’s right.
We saw him level up last season. We could all agree that he played better. Our impact rate and everything else suggest that he played better a season ago, and he still wasn’t worth our fantasy time at all.
Tetairoa McMillan is a star. I think we know that, and I think we’re going to see more of that. Jalen Coker is a nice dart-throwy guy, maybe something. Xavier Legette hasn’t panned out at all. There aren’t enough weapons here.
What I’m personally discouraged by: when Carolina was trailing, the team just shriveled up and died last season. That doesn’t show me a whole lot of confidence in Young from management.
From the top down, if you’re not looking at Young to throw the ball 30 times, and his rushing numbers regressed too, I’m not exactly sure where he’s getting the production from, unless it’s like what C.J. Stroud’s going to do in Houston, where it’s Nico Collins for him and Tetairoa McMillan here. Those bonkers WR1 weeks can result in one-week spikes.
If you think that’s going to happen, for the love of God, roster him in DFS. Go crazy there. There’s no reason to draft him in a standard format. Even in a superflex setting, I’m not counting on him weekly. I’m drafting him as part of a tandem as my QB2.
I hope Young shows it to me. I hope I’m wrong, in a division that could surely use a team to step up. I don’t think I am. I’m out on Young for 2026.
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Bryce Young’s Week 1 Fantasy Outlook
There were 10 instances in which a QB cleared 15 fantasy points against the Bears last season, and as this offense continues to develop, we could see that number grow with passing scripts backing opponents into an uncomfortably aggressive scheme.
We saw the Cardinals thrive in that regard last season. They dropped back to pass on 74.6% of snaps when trailing by 3+ points last season, allowing Jacoby Brissett to thrive for us while doing very little of note in the win-loss department.
The Panthers? They just kind of accept defeat.
They had the sixth-lowest dropback rate last season in those spots: they were happy to bleed the clock and get out of town. That style allowed Young to post just 5 top-15 finishes despite playing with the OROY and in game environments that should have fostered opportunities in bulk.
I’m hopeful that we see that change, but there’s not a world in which I’m betting on it out of the gates unless I’m backed into a corner, something that shouldn’t be the case in Week 1.
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Where Young Ranks Among 2026 Quarterbacks
- Baker Mayfield | TB
- Daniel Jones | IND
- C.J. Stroud | HOU
- Sam Darnold | SEA
- Cam Ward | TEN
- Bryce Young | CAR
- Jacoby Brissett | ARI
- Aaron Rodgers | PIT
- Geno Smith | NYJ
- Tua Tagovailoa | ATL
- Kirk Cousins | LV
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