Bryce Young has had quite the unconventional start to his career. As much as he has struggled, the young quarterback looked to finally be figuring it out toward the tail end of last season. Is there late-round fantasy football appeal for the Carolina Panthers QB this season?
Should You Draft Bryce Young in Fantasy?
It’s pretty interesting how certain players get the benefit of the doubt, while others start to be written off immediately. Former No. 1 overall pick Trevor Lawrence’s rookie season was worse than Young’s. Yet, at no point was the prospect of Lawrence getting benched even mentioned … for four years. Meanwhile, former No. 1 overall pick Young followed up a disappointing rookie year with two bad games as a sophomore and was benched.
Young deserved his benching. He completed 59.8% of his passes as a rookie while throwing 11 touchdowns and 10 interceptions in 16 starts. He averaged 179.8 passing yards per game.
Young opened up his sophomore season with games of 161 and 84 passing yards, throwing a total of three interceptions and no touchdowns. Not only did he display no signs of improvement, but he appeared to have gotten worse.
When the Panthers put Andy Dalton in there, things improved. The offense looked better as Dalton, while still nothing more than a backup at this stage in his career, gave the team a sense of stability.
Young’s benching could’ve gone one of two ways. He could have let it break him, given in to the criticism, and ended up in the UFL within two years. Instead, he treated it as a learning experience, used it as fuel, and made the most of his second chance.
The Panthers turned back to Young in Week 8, and the difference was immediate. He threw for 224 yards and two touchdowns with two interceptions. It was far from perfect, but it was noticeably better.
Bryce Young got his swagger back last year 😏
Can he lead the @Panthers to the playoffs in year 3? pic.twitter.com/LBKJFhC1QQ
— NFL Films (@NFLFilms) June 17, 2025
From Week 8 onward, including rushing, Young had six multi-touchdown games. He threw at least one touchdown in every one of his remaining contests. Most importantly, Young put himself on the fantasy radar.
Young averaged 10.4 fantasy points per game as a rookie. He wasn’t even a consideration as a streamer entering the 2024 season, and his first two starts did nothing to change that. But Young was quite useful after he returned from his benching.
Beginning in Week 8, Young averaged 18.6 points per game, making him the overall QB15 over that span. But more important than his ranking was the fact that he was posting low-end QB1 numbers. Young was a viable streamer, registering six games of at least 15 fantasy points.
Even more encouraging was how Young finished the year, playing his best football. In Young’s final three games, he accounted for multiple touchdowns in each, including a career-best 36.4 fantasy points in Week 18. That may not count for fantasy, but it matters when considering how to value Young for the upcoming season.
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An underappreciated part of Young’s improvement came on the ground. Beginning in Week 10, he started running more. Young will never be Justin Fields or Jayden Daniels, but 28 rushing yards per game is not insignificant. That’s more than half-a-touchdown worth of supplemental fantasy production via rushing.
As a rookie, Young failed to reach double-digit fantasy points 10 times. He reached 15+ fantasy points twice (scoring 20+ in both).
As a sophomore, despite a disastrous first two games and then riding the bench for five weeks, Young hit double-digit fantasy points in all but one of his starts. He reached 15+ fantasy points six times and 20+ three times, including games of 27.1 and 36.4. He displayed a ceiling and a level of ability we hadn’t seen prior.
Heading into the 2025 season, the optimism surrounding Young has increased. However, he’s still nowhere near being considered a fantasy starter. You do not have to draft him at his QB25 ADP. But will Young find himself on the streaming radar at some point this season? I certainly think so.
The Panthers made a very key addition in first-round WR Tetairoa McMillan. For all of Young’s faults, the Panthers did him no favors by having his top receivers be a 34-year-old Adam Thielen, a disgruntled and then discarded Diontae Johnson, a first-round bust Xavier Legette, and a rookie UDFA Jalen Coker (who I do like, by the way).
With more continuity offensively and a true WR1, it would not be a total shock if Young found his way into the fantasy QB1 conversation this season. I have Young ranked as my QB20, which is ahead of consensus, but not high enough to where anyone would have to take him in a single QB league. Nevertheless, don’t dismiss Young as making a fantasy impact in what could be a breakout third season for the Panthers’ quarterback.
Dan Fornek’s Bryce Young Fantasy Projection
Bryce Young was on a path to becoming one of the next great busts taken first overall in the NFL Draft to start 2024. Young followed up a catastrophic 2023 (59.8% completion rate for 2,877 yards, 11 touchdowns, and 10 interceptions) with an even worse start to his second year. The second-year quarterback was benched for Andy Dalton after just two games (55.4% completion rate for 245 yards and zero touchdowns with three interceptions).
Young eventually got another starting opportunity after Dalton was involved in a car accident and made the most of it. From Weeks 8 to 18, the second-year quarterback completed 61.8% of his passes for 2,104 yards and 15 touchdowns with just six interceptions. He also added 37 carries for 223 yards and five touchdowns. Young’s 18.0 PPG during that 10-game stretch greatly exceeded his 13.9 average finish on the season. He was a top-12 quarterback during that time as well.
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He will enter his third year with a lot of positive momentum. The Panthers drafted Arizona’s Tetairoa McMillan with a top 10 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft to give Young a true number-one receiver. He will join 2024 first-round pick Xavier Legette and veteran Adam Thielen in three-receiver sets. Young also has a solid offensive line and a strong run game to take pressure off of him in his third year.
We have seen Young show that he can be a QB1 in fantasy for a 10-week sample. It is far more likely that he is a QB2 given his lack of consistent rushing ability, but that still makes him an interesting late-round dart throw at quarterback.
