Fantasy Stock Rising for Panthers WRs?
The Carolina Panthers offense hasn't been anything close to "fun" over the last two years. With all of the injuries to running back Christian McCaffrey, suboptimal offensive line play, and the ongoing carousel at quarterback, it's been a challenge for that side of the ball to make any sort of progress.
Despite all of the issues that haunted the Panthers, wide receiver DJ Moore still produced 1,100-yard seasons in each of the last three years. The biggest problem for him has been finding the end zone, scoring just four touchdowns in 2019, 2020, and 2021.
Robbie Anderson had a career year two years ago in his first season with the Panthers but saw his numbers nearly cut in half with Sam Darnold at quarterback.
Does the addition of Baker Mayfield help Moore find the end zone more often? Does it help Robbie have a bounce back year? Can it lead to Terrace Marshall Jr. developing into a quality No. 3 receiver? Field Yates and Daniel Dopp of ESPN think so, especially from a fantasy prospective.
FIeld Yates
"There aren't too many quarterbacks that are just sort of generally accepted in every corner of the world including by their own team as like the guy solid, right? Like maybe Jimmy Garoppolo is kind of one of the exceptions where no one thinks Jimmy Garoppolo is a top five quarterback, but they also was on a bottom five quarterback. Baker Mayfield is a good example of this. A couple of years ago, we were touting Baker Mayfield as the first Browns quarterback that we thought was here to stay in like 50 years. All of a sudden he's radioactive and the Browns could not give him away and points this offseason. But he goes to Carolina and I got to be honest with you, while Baker Mayfield is not a top five quarterback in my eyes, not maybe even a top 10 quarterback, probably not top 12. He's also not a bad quarterback. When he's healthy. And Baker Mayfield is finally healthy after having surgery following last season when he was playing through a ton of stuff.
"I do think for the past catchers involved here this is good news. Christian McCaffrey I think is a different category because CMC like, as long as he plays basically there's no quarterback that it matters one way or the other, right? Like the passes that he catches are like usually within five yards of the line of scrimmage. Most NFL quarterbacks are going to nail those passes 85 out of 100 times, maybe even 95 out of 100 times. But the wide receivers, there'll be some good news here."
Daniel Dopp
"I think it helps the Panthers offense a ton. Baker Mayfield to me is probably a guy I'm looking at a new standard leagues. Yeah, probably a guy I'm looking at off the waiver wire not drafting him I don't believe. He's someone that I'm probably going to look at as a bye week fill in."
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