One of the most pleasant surprises of the 2024 season was the success of undrafted rookie wide receiver Jalen Coker. Now firmly part of the rotation, could he end up as the Carolina Panthers’ WR2, making him a steal in fantasy football drafts?
Jalen Coker Fantasy Outlook
Easily one of the most surprising success stories from the 2024 season is Coker. He was a rookie UDFA from Holy Cross, making him a massive long shot to even make an NFL roster. Coker not only did that, but he became a near-every-down player by the season’s final month.
Coker didn’t even make his debut until Week 4, when he ran a mere four routes and didn’t catch a pass. His first impact game came the next week, catching all four of his targets for 68 yards.
Coker’s breakout performance came in Week 8, hauling in four passes for 78 yards and a touchdown. It was the first of what wound up being three games of 14+ fantasy points.
Beginning in Week 10, Coker’s weekly snap share was consistently around 80-90%. He had won a starting role. Although not quite a reliable weekly producer, Coker’s 8.4 fantasy points per game put him inside the top 60. That’s usable in fantasy.
Coker has a whole lot of room for growth after seeing just a 14.5% target share and being targeted on a mere 17.4% of his routes run. His 1.81 yards per route run is mighty impressive for a small school rookie UDFA. His 10.4 yards per target ranked seventh. I am ready to say Coker is good at football.
Jalen Coker pic.twitter.com/AAiwRkDOJE
— Ian Hartitz (@Ihartitz) January 25, 2025
Of course, it’s difficult to shake that UDFA stigma. The Panthers now have two young first-round wide receivers on their roster, adding Tetairoa McMillan after having drafted Xavier Legette the year before. They also have veteran Adam Thielen, the oldest wide receiver in the league, manning the slot.
With that said, there is no clear second option in the passing game behind the rookie. McMillan should confidently be viewed as the favorite to lead this team in targets. But the next guy could be a number of players. I am willing to place my bet on Coker.
The UDFA straight-up outproduced the first-rounder last season. Coker had 19 fewer yards than Legette despite playing five fewer games. He averaged 0.6 PPG more than his first-round counterpart. Legette’s yards per route run and yards per target significantly trailed Coker’s. The UDFA was and is the better player.
Now, if Legette shows marked improvement and is the clear favorite for the WR2 role, fantasy managers can’t draft Coker. But I believe Coker will win that job.
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Can Bryce Young support multiple fantasy-relevant wide receivers? The version of him we saw down the stretch last season certainly can.
From Weeks 12 to 18, Young posted games of 16.5, 23.6, 13.5, 14.0, 27.1, 16.9, and 36.4 fantasy points. That’s 21 PPG: QB1 numbers. If he does that again, it’s easy to see how McMillan, Coker, and Thielen can all be worth rostering.
Coker’s ADP essentially doesn’t exist. He’s going as the WR95, which is well outside the range of players you can expect to get drafted. I have Coker ranked as my WR65, ahead of Thielen and well ahead of Legette, which is in direct contrast to ADP. For the free price, I am going to make Coker the last wide receiver on a bunch of my fantasy rosters, and you should, too. There is quite literally zero risk.
Dan Fornek’s Jalen Coker Fantasy Projection
Jalen Coker did the improbable as a rookie, elevating from an undrafted free agent out of FCS Holy Cross to being a key contributor and making four starts. Coker filled in for Adam Thielen during his hamstring injury, catching 32 of 46 targets for 478 yards and two touchdowns in 11 games (four starts). Coker finished as the WR57 in PPR points per game (9.3), but did have two top 20 finishes at the wide receiver position, including a WR12 week.
Coker’s outlook in 2025 is complicated. On one hand, he flashed as a rookie and showed that he could contribute at the NFL level. On the other hand, he’s a slot-specific receiver who is blocked on the depth chart by Adam Thielen, who is still good at football. Additionally, the Panthers drafted a wide receiver in the top 10 of the NFL Draft (Tetairoa McMillan), who will command a high percentage of targets as a rookie.
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The second-year receiver will likely be in an unfortunate timeshare at best to start 2025 if all of Carolina’s pass-catching weapons are healthy. He would likely need a Thielen injury to make any sort of impact, which is possible. If that happens, he can produce high-end WR3 weeks with WR2 upside in an ascending Panthers’ passing attack.
Coker is undraftable at the start of the season (unless your league has deep benches), but could be a priority waiver add at any time.
