Cam Newton's health heading into this season could have a huge impact on his fantasy projections. When healthy, Newton a force to reckoned as a runner and passer. With running back Christian McCaffrey alongside him, the Panthers' offense has explosive potential.
Our analysts rank Carolina's key players by scoring format, project their season-long stat lines and analyze their overall outlooks heading into the season.
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Panthers Fantasy Rankings, Projections
Cam Newton, QB
- Pass: 336 comp | 517 att | 65.1 comp% | 3,715 yds | 24.6 TDs | 14.2 INTs
- Rush: 100 car | 490 yds | 4.3 TDs
Christian McCaffrey, RB
- Rush: 214 car | 986 yds | 7.2 TDs
- Rec: 88 catches | 721 yds | 5 TDs
D.J. Moore, WR
- Rec: 66 catches | 933 yds | 4.8 TDs
Curtis Samuel, WR
- Rec: 53.5 catches | 673 yds | 5 TDs
Greg Olsen, TE
- Rec: 37 catches | 420 yds | 3.4 TDs
Ian Thomas, TE
- Rec: 32 catches | 317 yds | 2.3 TDs
Note: Projections as of August 22.
>> Get our experts' latest fantasy rankings and projections in our Draft Kit.
Panthers Fantasy Outlooks
Chris Raybon analyzes Panthers offensive coordinator Norv Turner's playcalling tendencies to project who might benefit the most.
- Christian McCaffrey saw his usage rise from a 73% snap rate and 12.3 touches a game in 2017 under Mike Shula to 96% snaps and 20.4 touches last year under Norv. That workload should be more than enough to leave his RB1 floor intact as the coaching staff looks to delegate his goal-line work. Inside the 5 last season, McCaffrey ranked top-six in carries (16), yards (19), and TDs (6). Take away that usage and McCaffrey loses roughly 38 fantasy points, but drops only three spots in ranking (RB2 to RB5 in PPR, RB3 to RB6 standard).
- Turner has traditionally run an Air Coryell scheme based around stretching the defense with vertical routes, but he meshed it with spread concepts in 2018, which helped turn Cam Newton into a more consistent real-life and fantasy passer. Newton's average pass depth of 7.1 yards ranked 32nd league-wide but led to three-year highs in passing yards per attempt (7.2) and touchdowns per game (1.7) and career-best marks in completion percentage (67.9%) and rate of 20-point fantasy games (57.1%). At one point, he ran up a streak of 11 straight games with multiple TD passes. The one downside: If those passing TDs dry up, his floor could be lower than usual, as his 21% share of his team's rushing attempts inside the 10 was barely half of his 38% career average pre-Norv.
- McCaffrey, D.J. Moore, and Curtis Samuel give Turner three movable chess pieces he can motion to and from the backfield to force the defense to dictate its coverage, but he also mixed in 0.75 designed runs per game for Moore and 0.67 for Samuel. The league average wide receiver run generated 6.4 yards and 0.81 fantasy points per attempt in 2018.
