The Panthers are entering their third season with head coach Dave Canales at the helm, and they made their first postseason appearance since 2017. While they may have made the postseason, the Panthers are still in search of their first winning record since 2017, and are hopeful that they can build on last year’s successes in an NFC South that looks like a division on the rise. Can Bryce Young and Canales take the Panthers to new heights in 2026, or is this a team that will enter the 2027 offseason with more questions than answers?
▶ 2025 Carolina Panthers Stats (Rank)
- Points per game: 18.3 (27th)
- Total yards per game: 295.6 (27th)
- Plays per game: 59.5 (31st)
- Dropbacks per game: 37.0 (24th)
- Dropback EPA per play: 0.01 (25th)
- Designed rush attempts per game: 25.7 (17th)
- Rush EPA per play: -0.07 (18th)
▶ Can Panthers offense finally make a leap in year three of Canales/Young?
You don’t have to look too hard to see that Bryce Young had his best season as a pro in 2025. The former No. 1 overall pick threw for 3,011 yards and 23 touchdowns last season while completing 63.6 percent of his passes. All were career-highs. Despite Young taking a noticeable step forward in his third season, the Panthers’ offense regressed from their 2024 numbers, when they averaged 20.1 points and 298.0 yards per game. They backed their way into the playoffs with an 8-9 record, losing three of their last five games, and went just 2-5 last season against teams with winning records, per TruMedia. It wouldn’t be accurate to say that 2026 is a make-or-break year for Canales, who was hired in 2024 for his offensive prowess and successful one-year stint as the Buccaneers’ offensive coordinator, but it goes without saying that he and Young have a lot to prove this season after taking marginal steps in the right direction last season.
▶ Passing Game
QB: Bryce Young, Kenny Pickett
WR: Tetairoa McMillan, John Metchie III
WR: Xavier Legette, Chris Brazzell II
WR: Jalen Coker, Jimmy Horn Jr.
TE: Tommy Tremble, Ja’Tavion Sanders, Mitchell Evans
It’s hard to imagine an offense having a down year while its quarterback enjoyed a career year, but that’s exactly what happened with the Panthers and Bryce Young, whose 3,011 passing yards rank as the 13th fewest among 373 QBs (min. 500 dropbacks) in a season since 2006. Among 29 quarterbacks with at least 300 snaps last season, Young ranked 25th in total EPA per play (-0.04), and his 4.8 ADOT on completed passes was tied for fourth-lowest and was a noticeable drop from his 6.1 ADOT on completed passes last season. His 42.7 completion percent on passes of 10-plus yards also ranked near the bottom of the league (25th). Any suggestion that Young took a step forward in 2025 needs to be taken with a grain of salt. While true, Young more or less kicked the bust argument down the road for at least one more season by looking like a low-end starter rather than a career backup. The Panthers did opt to pick up his fifth-year option, meaning that, barring a trade, Young will be with the team at least through 2027, but this feels like the season where he needs to start to live up to the hype that made him the No. 1 overall pick in 2023. Young has finished as a top-12 fantasy QB in 23 percent of his games played under Canales and can likely be left off of draft boards in 1QB leagues.
Backing up Young is another former first-rounder in Kenny Pickett, who is on his fourth team in four years after spending last season with the Raiders. Pickett has attempted just 87 passes over the last two seasons, throwing for 479-3-3 while completing 60.9 percent of his passes. While poor performance or an injury to Young could give Pickett another chance to revive his career, it’s hard to imagine there being any fantasy upside left in a player who has managed 16 career touchdown passes in 36 career games.
Serving as the WR1 of the Panthers’ passing game is Tetairoa McMillan, who narrowly got over the 1,000-yard mark in his rookie season with a 70-1,014-7 line on 122 targets. McMillan was the unquestioned alpha in the Panthers’ receiving room last season, soaking up 25.4 percent of the team’s targets and 41 percent of its air-yards, but fantasy managers should temper expectations in what still figures to be a low-volume passing game in 2026. Despite a strong rookie season, McMillan posted only two top-12 finishes in PPR leagues and finished as a top-24 PPR receiver in only 24 percent of his games. McMillan finished as the WR23 in fantasy points per game (12.6 PPG) last season and has a decent WR2 profile with a chance for more upside if Young and the offense can elevate to a new level next season.
Third-year receiver and former UDFA 2024 Jalen Coker is expected to serve as the Panthers’ WR2 this season after leap-frogging Xavier Legette mid-way through last year and turning in solid production from Weeks 11 to 18 when he totaled 26-328-3 in his final seven games. The Panthers recently signed Coker to a three-year, $35 million contract extension, committing to him through the 2029 season, while Legette, who was drafted 32nd overall in 2024, will have to battle for a role in camp. Legette caught just 35 passes for 363 yards and three touchdowns in 15 games last season, all of which were noticeable dropoffs from his 49-497-4 line from his rookie season. A former fifth-year breakout at South Carolina, Legette’s slow start to his professional career doesn’t come as much of a surprise. He’ll have pressure from rookie third-rounder Chris Brazzel II, who brings tremendous size (6'4"/198) as an outside receiver and went for 62-1,017-9 in his final season at Tennessee. Brazzell also boasts 4.37 speed and caught 40.8 percent of his contested targets during his career. It’s hard to imagine any receiver behind McMillan earning enough of a role to be fantasy relevant in 2026, but of this group, Coker makes for an intriguing late-round flyer in deeper leagues given his growth and the team’s commitment to him this offseason.
Carolina’s tight end group continues to be underwhelming. Third-year player Ja’Tavion Sanders is working his way back from an ankle injury that prematurely ended his 2025 season, but Sanders’ production took a major step back last season after a decent rookie campaign. He averaged just 2.6 targets per game in the 13 games he appeared in and totaled 29-190-1. Tommy Tremble, who projects to start for the Panthers this season, has shown flashes over his five-year career, but his 37 targets last season set a new career-high, and during Young’s three years in the league, the Panthers have targeted tight ends just 282 times, the fourth-lowest total of any team in the league. While it’s possible one of these players receives enough camp hype to justify a late-round dart throw, there’s little reason to believe there’s anything of fantasy value here.
▶ Running Game
RB: Chuba Hubbard, Jonathon Brooks, Trevor Etienne, AJ Dillon
OL (L-R): Ikem Ekwonu, Damien Lewis, Luke Fortner, Robert Hunt, Taylor Moton
The battle to watch in training camp is at running back, where Chuba Hubbard could be pushed by Jonathon Brooks for playing time if Brooks’ knee can hold up. Brooks, a former second-round pick from the 2024 class, missed all of last season after suffering a torn ACL in his right knee nearly a year after he suffered a torn ACL in the same knee in his final season at Texas. It’s been smooth sailing so far in OTAs and minicamp for Brooks, who some believe can take the RB1 role from Hubbard at some point in the year.
Brooks eventually emerging as the lead back over Hubbard wouldn’t be the most surprising development after Hubbard all but took a back seat to Rico Dowdle last season, shortly after Dowdle rushed for a combined 389 yards in Weeks 5 and 6 and had a firm grasp on the starting job by Week 9.
In his limited NFL action, Brooks totaled 45 scoreless yards from scrimmage on 12 touches, but he profiles as a three-down back that could earn plenty of targets. Given how last year played out for Hubbard, there’s precedent for Canales to look to replace him with Brooks at some point in the season, even if it doesn’t happen in camp. Where things stand right now, Hubbard has an ADP floating around the sixth or seventh round, while Brooks is going around the 11th or 12th round. While Hubbard could pay off at his ADP, Brooks is the easy value based on his health and early offseason reports.
▶ 2026 Carolina Panthers Win Total
DraftKings Over/Under: 7.5
Pick: Under (-130)
The Panthers have the third-toughest schedule of any team this season, based on opponents’ projected win totals, per SharpFootballAnalysis.com. For a team that managed just two wins against teams with winning records last season, it’s hard to imagine the Panthers matching last year’s eight-win total against what projects to be one of the toughest schedules in the league. In addition to the difficulty of the schedule, I’m unwilling to jump on whatever Bryce Young bandwagon is out there until his passing totals reflect a modern-day NFL offense, and I expect both the Buccaneers and the Saints to also compete for the division title in the NFC South. Carolina also faces three powerhouse defenses in the Broncos, Vikings, and Seahawks, although they could benefit from having the home matchup in two of those games. After barely getting to eight wins last season, I’ll happily take the under here.
Note: All fantasy numbers are based on full-PPR scoring. Stats and information courtesy of PFF.com, RotoViz.com, ProFootballReference.com, NextGenStats.NFL.com, 4For4.com, FantasyPoints.com and RBSDM.com.
