The Carolina Panthers will face the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 14. 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 14 Fantasy Start-Sit Cheat Sheet, where we cover every fantasy-relevant player in every game.
Bryce Young, QB
Bryce Young is playing as well as he has during his NFL career.
I have no interest in playing Young against an Eagles defense that is rounding into playoff form a month early.
Both things can be, and are, true. By his low standards, Young looks good (three straight games with zero interceptions and 17+ rushing yards). Even with him developing, let’s not get out over our skis — we are praising a player for a three-game stretch in which he has completed just 58.5% of his passes.
Fantasy isn’t a game of learning curves. Young playing over his baseline doesn’t mean he’s fantasy viable, and I expect that to be apparent on Sunday against the best yards-per-pass defense in the NFL. We can take a step back from things and evaluate this offense’s trajectory as a whole this offseason — I imagine I’ll be in at cost on a few of the pieces.
For 2024, you still need not worry.
Chuba Hubbard, RB
Chuba Hubbard finally fell flat. It finally happened. He was on the field plenty (at least a 78% snap share in four straight games), but his 12 touches carried very little value (5.9 expected PPR points). For just the third time this season, Hubbard didn’t see a target, and his single red-zone touch tanked his potential (16 red-zone touches over his three games prior).
He finished a brutal day with a crippling fumble in overtime while in field goal range. I’m willing to overlook this dud, but I’m not sure the trains get back on the tracks against a peaking Eagles defense that just forced Derrick Henry into his second-lowest boom/bust rate of the season.
For the season, Philadelphia surrenders RB rushing scores at the third-lowest rate. With the second-best third-down unit in the league, are we sure that Carolina holds the ball for more than 25 minutes in this one? Jonathan Brooks (six carries for 18 yards) did nothing on Sunday to make Hubbard’s managers nervous.
I think you’ll be OK during the fantasy playoffs, but asking him to produce top-15 numbers against a defense that has yet to allow 18 fantasy points to a running back this season is a lot.
Jonathon Brooks, RB
Jonathon Brooks played 8.6% of the snaps in his professional debut (Chuba Hubbard: 87.9%), picking up seven yards on his two carries against the Chiefs. I expect the team to slowly ramp up his usage to give him a taste of the NFL game, but I’d be surprised if he got much past 10 touches in any game this season. That means he’s unlikely to grace my top 30 at any point.
If he’s going to impact fantasy leagues this season, it’s because he cashes in a red-zone carry and the manager with Chuba Hubbard falls out of the playoffs as a result of the missed opportunity. Brooks is an interesting name to keep track of for next season — I’m holding for this week to see what the team does with his usage and cutting ties if we don’t see some serious growth.
Adam Thielen, WR
I’ll admit that I didn’t think Adam Thielen had a performance like what he gave us last week still in his bag. The veteran receiver caught a late touchdown pass against the Bucs that ended up extending the game into overtime, an extra session that saw him make a catch that will certainly be on any end-of-season reel you see.
Sheeeeesh @athielen19 pic.twitter.com/bXd9vPB9R6
— NFL (@NFL) December 2, 2024
He finished the game with eight grabs for 99 yards and the touchdown. That performance was nice, and he seems to have established himself as the rest-of-season alpha in this Panthers passing attack. The Eagles have allowed six receivers to reach 20 PPR points, and all of the names on that list are the WR1 types you’d assume.
With that understood, I can’t get Thielen inside of my top 30. Philadelphia hasn’t allowed more than 20 points in a game in four straight, a trend that, no matter how much you like what Bryce Young has put on tape lately, is tough to bank on Carolina reversing.
He’s locked into the slot these days (84% last week), and this upward-trending defense limits production to that spot on the field (sixth-fewest yards per attempt and completion this season).
The hope is for Jalen Coker to return from a two-week absence caused by a nagging quad injury, and while Thielen remains my highest-ranked Panther pass catcher, I’m not confident that there’s enough meat on the bone for him to give away work.
Jalen Coker, WR
“The hope” is that Jalen Coker returns from consecutive DNPs (quad), and while I think there is something to the undrafted Holy Cross product, I’m not interested in him for the remainder of 2024 in redraft leagues.
With a productive Adam Thielen and a lost season, what motivation does this team have to push Coker in a significant way? This is the type of profile that I think of when it comes to trimming the fat off of your postseason roster — Coker might have a moment or two over the final month, but he’s never realistically going to be on your radar.
Move on.
Xavier Legette, WR
Adam Thielen was the Panthers’ receiver who paid the bills last week, but his role is at risk with Jalen Coker (quad) expected back. Thus, Xavier Legette is my highest-ranked WR in Carolina this week and moving forward.
The rookie has reached double digits in expected PPR points in four of his past five games, a role-based number that is more likely to result in “actual” production with time now that Bryce Young is showing glimmers of hope.
In this specific match, my “highest-ranked Panthers WR” praise isn’t impactful when it comes to setting lineups. The Eagles are the second-best points-per-drive defense since Week 8 and could feast on this offense.
If I can help it this week, I want no part of this Carolina offense. We can circle back next week with the Cowboys coming to town.
Ja’Tavion Sanders, TE
Ja’Tavion Sanders suffered a scary-looking head/neck injury in the first half of Week 12’s loss to the Chiefs, which landed him in the hospital following the game. Hopefully, everything checks out health-wise, as there have been flashes of difference-making talent in this profile.
However, there’s no reason for the Panthers to be aggressive with him, and that has me looking in other directions at the position.
If Sanders can return to a full workload, we can circle back, but there’s no reason to take on this level of risk. The future is bright for him and maybe this offense as a whole — don’t forget about his name this summer.
