Fantasy Football Profile: Bryce Young 2025 Outlook

The vibes for Carolina Panthers quarterback Bryce Young are drastically different heading into 2025 than they were after the first two weeks of the 2024 NFL season.

Could Young have played any worse than he did in the first two games last season? The 2023 No. 1 overall pick threw for (a total of) 225 yards and averaged 4.01 Y/A with zero touchdowns and three interceptions in those two games. Then he was benched for Andy Dalton, and his future in Carolina was extremely uncertain.

MORE: 2026 Carolina Panthers Mock Draft Roundup

Act II was much better than Act I

Young got a second lease on life after being reinserted as the starter in Week 8. Per PFF, only Joe Burrow (27) had more big time throws (BTT) than Young (26) from Weeks 8-18 and only Michael Penix Jr. had a higher BTT% than Young.

Carolina had their bye in Week 11, and Young was fantasy's QB8 on a points-per-game basis (21.2) after the bye (Weeks 12-18).

During that seven-game stretch to close the season, Young had three top-12 weekly finishes including a QB1 and QB2 finish in two weeks of the final three weeks of the season. His floor was also solid — Young's worst outing (13.54 fantasy points) was the fifth highest among quarterbacks with at least three starts over the span. The only four quarterbacks with higher floors during that stretch were Lamar Jackson (21.48!), Bo Nix (14.16), Patrick Mahomes (14.1) and Joe Burrow (13.98).

As noted above, Young was especially good over the final three weeks with a pair of top-two fantasy outings. He completed 64.8% of his pass attempts for 7.0 Y/A with seven touchdowns and zero interceptions during that stretch. Yes, Week 18 doesn't matter from a fantasy perspective in nearly all leagues, but only San Francisco's Brock Purdy (27.2) averaged more PPG than Young (26.8), who was tied with Baker Mayfield, over the final three weeks.

Young's underrated rushing production

As one of the league's smallest starting quarterbacks, Young won't get his number called often on designed runs. Over the past two seasons, however, Young is one of only 11 quarterbacks with at least 500 combined rushing yards.

In fact, only Kyler Murray (6.7) has averaged more yards per carry than Young (6.1) among that group of quarterbacks. (Both Lamar Jackson and Jayden Daniels are tied for third with 6.0 YPC.)

Young clearly doesn't have the rushing upside of those dual-threat quarterbacks, but he also scored six rushing touchdowns last year as well. Per PFF, Young scrambled 31 times (fourth-most) from Week 8-18. (That number equalled his 2023 scrambles.)

Even though he's not a prolific rusher, a fair projection is 250 rushing yards and three touchdowns and it's possible for a little more than that.

Better weapons in 2025

Through his first two NFL seasons, the Panthers have had one of the league's worst receiving corps. Their top three wide receivers last year were Adam Thielen, who turns 35 in August, Xavier Legette, more of a gadget receiver than a true No. 1, and Jalen Coker, a rookie UDFA who was more productive than expectations.

Using their first-round (eighth overall) pick on Tetairoa McMillan immediately upgrades their group of pass catchers. McMillan isn't the type of elite top-10 wide receiver prospect to which we've become accustomed over the past several draft classes, but his combination of size, body control and ball skills should allow him to win in similar ways as Atlanta's Drake London.

Bryce Young Full-Season Projections

Here are our full-season projections for Young:

Bottom Line

Carolina's defense leaves a lot to be desired, but so does the rest of the NFC South. The Buccaneers, Saints and Falcons allowed the fourth-, sixth-, and 11th-most passing yards in 2024, respectively. If we exclude the Panthers, the other three NFC South teams allowed a league-high average of 4,006.3 passing yards per team compared to the other seven divisions. Only AFC South teams allowed more passing touchdowns per team (28.5) than the NFC South minus the Panthers (26.67).

Young's strong finish in 2025 combined with the addition of McMillan offer hope for the franchise, fan base and fantasy managers who expect continued improvement from the third-year quarterback. Even though he's likely to go undrafted in most standard 10- or 12-team leagues, Young has plenty of upside and sleeper appeal to those who play in either 2-QB/Super Flex formats or deep(er) leagues.

More projections:

• Carolina Panthers Fantasy Football Projections
• Fantasy Football Projections