Bryce Young Has All The Makings To Be A QB1 In Fantasy Football This Year

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The Carolina Panthers third year signal caller has the chance to rise from QB20 last year in 4-point passing TD fantasy football leagues to a top 12 fantasy Quarterback this year. In fact, I think he'll be a top 10 fantasy QB. A few things point to that for me:

His Head Coach, Dave Canales. Canales worked with Geno Smith and Baker Mayfield when they were both thought to be done as NFL starters and turned their careers around. Both Smith and Mayfield got big contracts in the last two seasons. Bryce Young had a rough start with Canales at HC getting benched just two weeks into his second NFL season. But when he returned as the starter, he began making the progress you want to see from a young Quarterback. I expect that to continue into B.Y.'s third season.

In his final eight games, he started running a lot more. Five of those eight games he ran for 20 yards or more and averaged 26 yards on the ground per contest. You're not going to confuse him with Lamar Jackson or Jalen Hurts anytime soon, but an extra 2.6 points/game can really boost his stock. Not only that, but over the final six games, he had five rushing TDs. That is a major major boost and we see QBs that score a lot of the ground be at the top echelon of fantasy QBs in Josh Allen, Jayden Daniels, and Jalen Hurts. Can Young double that rushing TD production over the course of an entire season? If he does, he should easily be a top 10 guy this year.

Over that final eight game span, you also saw only 3 INTs compared to 12 TDs. That 12:3 TD:INT ratio is very good. If he could stay on that trajectory and get his TD passes in the 30s and the Panthers would have a good record, he'd be in the MVP discussions in December.

But what I liked most to stick with this take, was that Young finished the season on a heater averaging these stats in his final three games against Arizona, Tampa Bay, and Atlanta. Three teams that were playing to win.

vs. Arizona 17/26 158 passing yards 2 passing TDs. 5 carries 68 rushing yards 1 rushing TD (27.12 fantasy points)

at Tampa Bay 15/28 203 passing yards 2 passing TDs. 2 carries 8 rushing yards (16.92 fantasy points)

at Atlanta 25/34 251 passing yards 3 passing TDs. 5 carries 24 rushing yards (36.44 fantasy points)

That averages to: 19/29 204 passing yards 2.3 passing TDs. 4 carries 33 rushing yards 1 rushing TD (26.7 fantasy points) over his final three games. 

If he would keep to those averages, he'd be QB1 overall by a wide margin! Lamar Jackson had 430.4 total points last year (25.3 avg./game). But let's dial it back and figure he gets 18 fantasy points/game. If he can average just 19 fantasy points/game over 16 games, giving him a break for one missed game, that would land him at QB10 overall this past season. There is a lot of ball left to be played, but I like my chances with this young man! And as a Bucs fan, that terrifies me.

Catch all that and more on our Fantasy Football Factory Quarterback preview episode: