The fantasy football landscape shifts each week, bringing fresh opportunities and unexpected challenges that separate the prepared from the pretenders. Savvy managers know that last week’s performance tells only part of the story, and diving deeper into the underlying metrics reveals the accurate picture.
This week presents some intriguing decisions. Here’s insight about key Carolina Panthers players heading into their matchup with the Green Bay Packers to help you craft a winning lineup.
Andy Dalton, QB
I’m not saying Bryce Young isn’t the problem, but this Carolina offense might just be a pig, and putting lipstick on it with Andy Dalton doesn’t change that.
The wily vet had nearly as many sacks (seven) as completions in enemy territory over the weekend (nine,) and that was in a game where they ran the ball reasonably well, albeit on low volume due to the score (Panther RBs: 24 carries for 104 yards).
He did the one thing we needed him to do: feed Tetairoa McMillan. The rookie earned a 43.5% target share, and that’s the only job of the Carolina QB at this point. In that regard, I prefer him to Young, but at some point, it doesn’t matter: the volume is enough to justify starting the talented receiver, but not of high enough quality to give him much of a ceiling.
Bryce Young, QB
An ankle injury sidelined Bryce Young (one finish better than QB15 this season) last week, opening the door for Andy Dalton to do his best Bryce Young impersonation.
I want to believe that this franchise has already hit rock bottom and that things can only go up from here, but that doesn’t mean it’ll happen quickly. There are some intriguing players on this roster, so once the QB situation gets figured out (either via development or restart), I think there’s a season where the corresponding pieces are had at a bargain.
That year does not appear to be 2025.
We can hope for 2026.
Chuba Hubbard, RB
Chuba Hubbard, in the Panthers’ first series on Sunday, again held the snap edge and again failed to match Rico Dowdle in efficiency.
This backfield is at risk of being labeled insane (doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result), and I don’t know what we can do to stop it.
There are a handful of situations like this across the NFL right now, and it’s a problem. We are looking at a situational committee where the success of certain drives dictates which RB finishes the week with the more valuable end of the split.
It’s simply impossible to project.
I can tell you that Dowdle is checking nearly every advanced box at a higher rate than Hubbard, but I’m not sure that means anything. Over the past two weeks, it hasn’t resulted in any change in usage, and, with this team — for reasons unknown and not motivated for a fresh look — I can’t sit here and tell you that Week 9 is when we get clarity.
Maybe we do, maybe we don’t.
What I can say with confidence is that this team has an implied point total hovering around 17, and that’s not enough for me to start either of their running backs if I can help it.
Rico Dowdle, RB
This is worse than a full-blown committee; it’s chaos.
Last Two Weeks (Since Hubbard Returned)
- Rico Dowdle: 25 carries for 133 yards
- Chuba Hubbard: 26 carries for 65 yards
If we had known this was going to be a 50/50 split, we could have worked around it. We wouldn’t like it, but we’d know what to expect.
But this isn’t that. This is a drive-by-drive setup that carries the potential for unpredictable usage patterns if one RB happens to be on the field for a high percentage of successful drives.
Of course, how a running back runs plays into that, but it’s not the only factor (the carries were divided 5-5 through the first four drives last week). Carolina is a double-digit underdog in this spot, and that puts all rushing production in trouble.
I prefer Dowdle if I’m splitting hairs, but neither is a top 20 option for me this week because I have no confidence in our ability to forecast where the opportunities are going. I’m OK playing the most explosive Panther over Alvin Kamara or David Montgomery if you’re fed up with how the veterans are performing. However, you should enter this situation with eyes wide open: the range of outcomes is wide.
Jalen Coker, WR
We, as a community, viewed Jalen Coker as the WR2 in this offense during the draft process, but an injury late in the preseason dampened the excitement around him.
Generalized ineptitude from the Panthers’ offense makes this an argument without a real winner, but I do think we got it right.
He returned to action in Week 7 and played just 37.1% of the offensive snaps (Xavier Legette: 8.8%). Last week, however, he was ramped up to 66.1% with Legette’s number falling back to a flat 8.0%.
It would appear to be only a matter of time before Coker is second in command (behind Tetairoa McMillan), and that means we can take pride in having projected this situation accurately.
The problem is, of course, that it doesn’t matter. The Panthers average the fourth-fewest passing yards per game this season (179.5) and allow pressure at the seventh-highest rate. Bryce Young, Andy Dalton, or anyone else you throw under center isn’t going to have the time to move the ball down the field, and that renders the WR2 in this offense all but useless.
I’d rather stash Coker than Legette for the second half of the season, but I’d rather not have to worry about it at all.
Tetairoa McMillan, WR
McMillan is coming off catching a career-high seven passes against the Bills in a blowout loss, and we could get a similar path to production this week in Lambeau.
The rookie has earned targets like a player well beyond his level of experience, and that’s a great first step. The quality of targets is the primary issue, and while we can’t fix it this season, the hope is that it gets sorted out over time.
READ MORE: Soppe’s Week 9 Fantasy Football Start ‘Em Sit ‘Em: Analysis for Every Player in Every Game
McMillan has cleared 100 air yards five times this season, and I think a sixth such performance is more than likely on Sunday. Playing anyone attached to this offense comes with risk, but the math works in your favor given the role, and that’s why I have T-Mac as a low-end WR2 this week, even in a difficult matchup.
Xavier Legette, WR
This is why sample sizes are important.
We have a larger sample size showing that Xavier Legette is on the lower end of the average. We had nearly that same data set this time last week; the only difference was that he was coming off a weird outlier game where he went 9-92-1 against a Jets team that used Sauce Gardner to cover the other half of the field.
The recency of the big game made Legette a popular mention in our Start/Sit tool and even spilled over into my social life, with my wife scolding me for recommending she bench him in Week 7.
She started him last week.
Score one for me.
If you’re chasing tail outcomes, you can do whatever you want weekly. If you’re in the business of making responsible fantasy decisions, I don’t think you’re ever going to land on Legette (three targets in a 31-point loss generally doesn’t happen to players that teams view as a vital part of what they want to do through the air.
Ja’Tavion Sanders, TE
The playing time ticked up in his second game back from injury, but Ja’Tavion Sanders was under 20 routes run again on Sunday against the Bills. While game script factored into him not exactly being extended late, that’s a common risk for the 2025 Panthers.
I think he’s a part of the long-term outlook of this offense, but he’s just that: the future. The future is not now for Carolina, and that means you can do better with a handful of TEs that are in your waiver wire pool every week.