The NFC South will be a stacked division next year, so the Panthers be ready to play. Carolina has a new head coach in Matt Rhule and a new quarterback in Teddy Bridgewater. Rhule was a fairly successful coach in college, although he only finished three games above even, he was able to turn Baylor's program around after the scandal. Last season, Christian McCaffrey set the fantasy football world on fire and came up just shy of LaDainian Tomlinson's single-season total points record. McCaffrey's insane performance overshadowed DJ Moore's sophomore season, but he finished as a top 20 fantasy receiver on a team who saw three different starting quarterbacks throughout the season. This year it will be interesting to see how those two players fit in with the new offense that Carolina has brought in. Matt Ruhle's first big decision as the Panthers coach was making the tough decision to move on from Cam Newton. Instead, the Panthers signed Teddy Bridgewater in free agency because they see him as a better game manager than Newton and an overall better fit for the offense. The only full season Bridgewater played in was 2015, with the Minnesota Vikings, where he went 11-5 as the starter. Unfortunately, due to injuries the following two seasons, he was out of football for almost three full seasons before stepping in for an injured Drew Brees last year. Teddy finished the 2015 season as QB23, with fewer fantasy points than his running back, Adrian Peterson. McCaffrey has a VERY strong chance to outscore Bridgewater this season, but the key advantage of having Christian over AP is the receiving ability. With McCaffrey catching over 100 balls for 1000 yards and four scores last year, he is every quarterback's dream back. As fun as it is to watch Teddy play and as much as you may want to root for the guy, he's best left alone in fantasy drafts. He's currently not being projected as a draftable quarterback for standard leagues and I would agree, but for two-quarterback leagues, he's a sneaky QB2 with explosive offensive weapons around him. Speaking of explosive offensive weapons, Christian McCaffrey has been an absolute monster the past couple of seasons. Coming out of college, despite breaking numerous records, he was slightly overlooked and wasn't even viewed as the best running back in the draft (Sorry Jacksonville). McCaffrey is the clear number one draft choice heading into next season strictly because of the number of touches he receives. In 2018, he received the third-most touches in the league, but this past year he received the most with 403 touches. The only other two players to have over 400 touches in a single season this decade, were Demarco Murray (2014) and Le'Veon Bell (2017). Both of those names scare me because they both had historic seasons and then quickly faded to average. With that being said, if you have the first pick in your fantasy draft, you have to take CMC. If you're lucky enough to draft McCaffrey, you should be open to listening to any trade offers because the wear and tear from last season should be a legitimate concern. The receiving core for the Carolina Panthers is a young group with a lot of potential. DJ Moore would have finished as a top 12 WR last year if he had played the last two weeks and now he has a new offensive coordinator, Joe Brady, who just helped Burrow and Tigers win the National Championship. If Brady is half as good in the NFL as he was at LSU, he will find new ways to get Moore and the other receivers open when the opposing defenses are keyed in on CMC. Another positive stat from Moore's impressive sophomore season was that, while healthy, he only had two games of under 12 fantasy points. Consistency is a huge thing in fantasy football which is why a lot of experts are high on Moore this year and a lot see him as a top 10 WR. Considering all of the changes for Carolina this offseason, DJ Moore will be someone I will stay away from in drafts. He's currently projected to be a late 2nd round or 3rd round pick, but with CMC getting 300 to 400 touches and the question marks around what the offensive gameplan will be, there are safer options. The other receiving options in Carolina are tight end, Ian Thomas, and newly signed WR, Robby Anderson. With Greg Olsen in Seattle, Thomas no longer has to compete for the starting job with the fan-favorite. Unfortunately, even with no competition, there are far better fantasy options at tight end than Thomas. With only 16 catches on the season last year, he should be a free agent in every league week one. Robby Anderson signed with Carolina after spending his first four years in the league with the Jets. Every year it seemed like Anderson was a preseason pick to be a breakout receiver, but so far it has not come to fruition. There have been times where he shows what he's capable of and other times where he disappears for an entire half a season. Anderson scored double digits in the final five weeks of fantasy last year (weeks 11-16) and was WR11 during that span. For this year's draft, he's currently being projected around WR40, going in the ninth round or later. That's a good spot to take a risk on a guy who finished the fantasy season strong last year.
- Alex Zani