Carolina Panthers Fantasy Football News | Shark Bites

Panthers WR Terrance Marshall is expected to miss "a few weeks" with his back injury, according to Fox Sports Radio's Sheena Quick. We're about three-and-a-half weeks away from the start of the regular season, so Marshall seemingly has a shot to be ready for Week 1. But it looks like he'll open the season as Carolina's No 4 WR, behind Adam Thielen, D.J. Chark , and Jonathan Mingo.

Panthers HC Frank Riech said Wednesday that RB Miles Sanders is "getting close" to returning from his groin injury. Reich added that Sanders probably won't play in either of the remaining two preseason games. But it sounds like he'll be ready to roll come Week 1. We haven't moved Sanders down the 2023 fantasy football rankings.

Panthers HC Frank Reich said Monday that WR Terrace Marshall hurt his back in practice and is getting checked out, according to Joe Person of The Athletic. We'll see whether it's anything serious, but Marshall has already been trending toward landing no higher than fourth on the WR depth chart.

Panthers RB Miles Sanders is sitting out Saturday’s preseason opener. Per NFL Network’s Cam Wolfe, Sanders has a “very mild” groin injury. Wolfe added that the first-year Panther would have played had it been the regular season. Sanders remains inside RB2 range in our fantasy RB rankings.

Panthers RB Chuba Hubbard “continued to be plagued by drops” at training camp, per The Athletic’s Joe Person. We’ll see how the preseason usage shakes out. But Person believes the Panthers could use a bigger back to “complement” Miles Sanders, who’s currently dealing with a minor groin injury. We’ll keep an eye on Carolina as a destination for a free-agent RB.

The Athletic's Joe Person named WR Jonathan Mingo a training camp “riser.” According to Person, the rookie showed he’s “going to be a big part of the rotation with a solid camp.” Mingo should also benefit from the strong showing by QB Bryce Young. See where Mingo stacks up in our fantasy WR rankings.

Panthers HC Frank Reich said RB Miles Sanders "tweaked" his groin in Wednesday's practice and will be held out of the preseason opener. This doesn't sound like a significant injury, but we'll see when Sanders is able to get back on the field.

The Panthers' initial -- and "unofficial" -- depth chart lists rookie WR Jonathan Mingo as a starter, alongside WRs Adam Thielen and D.J. Chark. This might mean nothing, of course, given that teams differ in how seriously they treat released depth charts. But rookies more often appear lower vs. reality on these initial charts -- not higher than their actual standing. So we'll take this is a good sign for the second-round pick. That doesn't make Mingo an exciting fantasy football draft pick in a situation with limited ceiling potential. But he's fine as a best ball selection. No Panthers WR sits inside the top 50 in either our fantasy football rankings or ADP.

The Panthers have agreed to a one-year deal with Edge Justin Houston. ESPN's Adam Schefter reports that Houston will get $6 million guaranteed, with a top value of $7 million. Houston rebounded for 9.5 sacks at age 33 with the Ravens last season, tying his second-largest sack total of the past eight years despite a career-low 44.1% snap share. That bodes well for the pressure rate Carolina can expect to get from the veteran. But you should expect Houston to remain in a similar situational role. That obviously limits his statistical upside. Beyond the sacks, Houston tallied a career-low 21 total tackles. That matched the total from his 2016 campaign in Kansas City, which saw Houston play in just five games. Houston tallied 6 more solo tackles (20) that year than he did in 2022. We've added Houston to the IDP rankings, but he's not an exciting option.

Panthers HC Frank Reich told reporters Saturday that he held RB Miles Sanders out of team drills after Sanders "tweaked something" early in practice, according to multiple reports. Darin Gantt of the team websites added that it was "mostly a precaution." We'll watch for any signal that this is something more significant.

Panthers LT Ikem Ekwonu has “quickly become a force,” per The Athletic’s Joseph Person. A 2022 Round 1 pick, Ekwonu struggled early in his rookie season —particularly in his debut against Browns DL Myles Garrett. But he made strides from there, and it sounds like he’s further improved this offseason. Overall, Bryce Young’s O-line looks like an above average unit. For more, read about the relationship between O-line play and fantasy production.

Steelers WR Diontae Johnson left practice with an unspecified lower-body injury on Friday. Dale Lolley of the team website reports that Johnson "went out and tried to go again in team [drills], but shut it down after coming off the field gingerly." That Johnson returned to the field at all after the initial issue in a July practice suggests this isn't serious. But we'll watch for updates.

Update: Johnson's absence was heat-related. Carry on.

Panthers HC Frank Reich named QB Bryce Young his starter on Wednesday. We appreciate Reich saving us from having to read about a faux QB competition between Young and Andy Dalton for the next month. A two-year starter at Alabama, Young looks like a relatively pro-ready rookie QB. There are lots of questions in his WR corps. But Young's sneaky rushing upside could give him some QB1 spot-start appeal throughout this season.

It's not hard to figure out why new Panthers WR Jonathan Mingo made it into Round 2 of the NFL Draft. He averaged 15.7 yards per catch for his SEC career, including 16.9 his final season at Ole Miss. Then he ran a 4.46-second 40 time at the Scouting Combine and notched 89th-percentile measurements in the broad and vertical jumps -- at nearly 6'2 and 220 pounds. So what's not to like? Mingo caught just 39 passes across his first two college seasons. He seemed on his way to a breakthrough junior year before a foot fracture disrupted things. And even in his best (fourth) season, Mingo still trailed teammate Malik Heath in receptions and yards. That makes it tough to expect Mingo to immediately lead an NFL WR corps in production. The rookie sits just ahead of Adam Thielen to lead Panthers WRs in Underdog ADP. But you won't find him nearly so high in our WR rankings. Carolina doesn't sport an impressive group at the position, but be careful about overrating the rookie on that factor.

Fantasy managers shouldn't overlook Steelers WR Diontae Johnson this season. As bad as it was that he scored zero receiving TDs in 2022, Johnson led the Steelers in targets (147), target share (26.8%), and receptions (85). Unfortunately, that only translated to Johnson finishing as the WR42 in PPR points per game (10.63). Those aren't the results you want to see from a team's WR1. Even so, his zero TD season was somewhat historic. Among NFL WRs in the Super Bowl era who caught zero receiving TDs in a season, Johnson’s 2022 campaign ranks first in PPR points (180.7) and targets, third in receiving yards (882), and sixth in PPR points per game. Not so bad, all things considered. Assuming he even catches a small handful of TDs, Johnson stands to improve in 2023. He's likely to maintain his status as the lead pass-catcher in the Steelers' offense and should be considered a strong flex option for fantasy managers. See where Johnson appears in our latest WR rankings.

New Panthers RB Miles Sanders is clearly in line to lead the team's rushing after signing the biggest free-agent contract for any RB that switched teams this offseason. HC Frank Reich called him "a three-down back" in June, according to AP. And Sanders said he's excited to reunite with RBs coach Duce Staley, who "knows what I can really do." He certainly seems to be expecting more receiving work. But Sanders' past three years have been pretty terrible in that area. He went from 3.1 receptions per game as a rookie to 2.3, 2.2, and 1.2. And his 10.2 yards per catch fell to 7.0, 6.1, and 3.9. Sanders has also seen his Pro Football Focus pass-blocking grade decline each year. RB Chuba Hubbard doesn't look like a great bet to steal a big role after seeing his work decline in Year 2. RB Raheem Blackshear, however, caught 123 passes at 9.9 yards per catch over a 5-year college career that spanned two stops. There's also room for the Panthers to import a veteran such as Kareem Hunt. Sanders carries some upside from his mid-RB2 position in our fantasy football rankings. Just make sure you don't overrate him simply because you can't see who else in the Carolina backfield would claim significant opportunity share.

New Panthers WR Adam Thielen told the team website that he's been "so impressed" with teammate WR Terrace Marshall Jr. both on and off the field. "He's been so great in the meeting room, and then being on the field with him, there's a lot of potential there," Thielen said. New HC Frank Reich added that Marshall showed improvement late last season, the WR's second in the pros: "I think it's just a matter of him getting more play time and making those plays consistently. I think we saw that last year with the reps that he got, the catches that he had, the big plays that he had, that he shows the capacity to kind of be a big play guy." Marshall will have to compete for those reps with imports Thielen, D.J. Chark, and Jonathan Mingo this summer. The good news for his fantasy outlook is that Marshall's disappointing first two seasons has him lingering on the board until the very end of best ball drafts. He's far from a must-add, but there's no real risk to taking some shots on Marshall in that range. See where he and all the new Panthers teammates sit in our 2023 fantasy football rankings.

Panthers No. 1 overall pick Bryce Young has been widely lauded for his passing accuracy. But sneaky rushing upside could be key to his fantasy value. If you remove yardage lost on sacks -- which NCAA stats subtract from QB rushing -- Young averaged 6.1 yards per carry in 2021 and then 9.1 per rush last season. He totaled 284 yards and then 313 yards in scrambles in his two starting turns at Alabama, according to Pro Football Focus. Young followed that with a 4.58-second 40 time at his pro day. That would rank 90th-percentile among QB results at the Scouting Combine. Young will likely need to scramble at least a bit more in the NFL than he did at Alabama. He averaged just 2.56 attempts per game there over the past two years. Even the largely immobile crew of Colts QBs -- led by Matt Ryan -- on Frank Reich's last Colts team averaged 2.78 per game. The 280+ yards that Young delivered on scrambles the past two years would have ranked seventh among QBs in rushing yards in the NFL last season. That level of rushing production would boost his fantasy floor and ceiling. Read more about Young's fantasy outlook and see where he sits in our 2023 superflex rankings. The rookie could turn into a value pick in that format.

The Athletic's Joe Person highlighted WRs Terrace Marshall and Jonathan Mingo in the "Stock Up" section of a recent article. The Panthers re-made their WR corps this offseason under new HC Frank Reich, trading away D.J. Moore and adding Mingo, Adam Thielen and D.J. Chark to Marshall and Laviska Shenault. It seems like playing time is up for grabs heading to training camp later this month. We'll keep you updated on the situation.

Panthers QB Andy Dalton believes he’s still a top-32 QB in the NFL. “I view myself as a starter in this league; I don’t think there are 32 guys better than me,” Dalton told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “But this is the situation I am in, and I understand that. As soon as I don’t think I’m one of the best 32, or a little lower, I’ll be watching football on TV.” Barring a summer face plant from Bryce Young, Dalton will enter September in a backup role.