The Carolina Panthers will face the Arizona Cardinals in Week 16. Here’s fantasy football start-sit advice for every Panthers skill player who has the potential to make a fantasy impact during the game.
Looking for more lineup advice? Head over to our Week 16 Fantasy Start-Sit Cheat Sheet, where we cover every fantasy-relevant player in every game.
Bryce Young, QB
The 83-yard touchdown pass to Jalen Coker under duress was good to see, but on 14 other pressured dropbacks against Dallas, Bryce Young produced one (1) passing yard.
Over the past month or so, we seem to get breadcrumbs when it comes to a positive profile, but nothing substantial enough to have my interest in any capacity for the remainder of this season. Case in point: Young hit Micah Parsons — unofficially a top-three most scary player on a football field thes
e days — with a spin move last week, and it worked!
He then finished the run with a lost fumble.
That’s pretty much Young’s career arc up to this point. I’ll be paying attention in the offseason, not in the current times with no room for error in the fantasy playoffs.
Chuba Hubbard, RB
Chuba Hubbard is one touchdown away from joining Christian McCaffrey as the only Panther RB since 2010 with 1,000 rushing yards and 10 total scores in a season. Putting his name on a list with only McCaffrey is a bit dramatic, but what he has done as a part of a limited offense is nothing short of special.
With Jonathon Brooks done for the season (ACL), there’s no obvious carry competition. Given Hubbard’s contract extension, it’s logical to think that this team could shut him down, but until we hear that speculated, I’m planning on running Hubbard out there as a rock-solid RB2.
This season, Arizona is allowing the second-most yards per carry after first contact to opposing running backs. I think you can pencil in a nice rebound effort in what should be a more competitive game.
Adam Thielen, WR
Jalen Coker (quad) returned to action last week, and that means we are splitting a slot role that was fringe-worthy in the first place in terms of my confidence. If Bryce Young is going to develop, I’d expect a very well-thought-out plan of attack down the stretch of this season, something like what we saw on his first 10 passes last week:
- Jalen Coker: Three targets (two catches for 19 yards)
- Chuba Hubbard: Three targets (three catches for 16 yards)
- Xavier Legette: Two targets (two catches for seven yards)
- Thielen: Two targets (one catch for five yards)
I’m not confident at all in the hierarchy of targets in Carolina to close this season, nor am I confident in Young paying off those targets with fantasy points. I’d hang onto Thielen with a plus schedule the rest of the way, but I’m doing so with very little in the way of expectations.
Jalen Coker, WR
Jalen Coker returned from a quad injury last week and took a pass 83 yards to the house to celebrate, fueling his second top-20 performance of his rookie season.
That play, naturally, was as much the result of mass confusion in Dallas’ secondary as anything, so I’d caution against reading too much into anything. It was Coker and Adam Thielen in two-receiver sets with Xavier Legette getting banged up, and that puts two similar skill sets in position to cannibalize one another.
With Bryce Young offering spotty QB play, I’d prefer to have the slot role locked up if I were going to venture into the Panthers’ waters. Both Coker and Thielen have shown the ability to win at that spot on the field, but last week, it was the veteran occupying that spot (71.4% of snaps) over the rookie (46.5%).
I remain interested in this team — I’ll save my exposure for next season.
Xavier Legette, WR
Xavier Legette is going to be more than a fun accent and interesting eating habits, but not yet.
Over the course of his last seven games played with fellow rook Jalen Cooker active, he’s turned 156 routes into just 148 receiving yards. There were some interesting scoring metrics on him earlier this season, but those have evaporated lately. Over his last five games, he’s been targeted on just 10.3% of his red-zone routes.
Citing “Carolina red-zone trips” is an issue unto itself given the small nature of it, and if Legette’s share is underwhelming, there’s no real reason to hold onto him, even if his status were to swing in a positive direction (groin).
Ja’Tavion Sanders, TE
The potential is there for Ja’Tavion Sanders to develop alongside Bryce Young, and that’s going to have my attention in the 2025 redraft prep. I think there’s a lot to like in the rookie, but not with your season on the line after consecutive goose eggs.
This season, just one of his 250 routes have earned an end-zone target. With six instances in which a single-digit on-field target share was posted, the floor is too low to garner serious interest as a streaming candidate.
