Pat Fantasy Dog Pound could not pass on Bryce Young at pick 196, calling the sophomore "flat-out disrespected." Pat reminded viewers that Young averaged 53 rushing yards per game over his final college season and flashed that scramble gene whenever the pocket broke down in 2023. With Diontae Johnson, Xavier Legette and rookies Johnny Wilson/Jaden Coker added to give Carolina real after-catch juice, Pat sees a clear path to weekly 18-point fantasy spikes. As a third quarterback, Young only needs a couple of those games to juice an advance rate, and Pat believes the floor is higher than people think because Dave Canales’ offense ranked top-12 in early-down pass rate last year in Tampa. He is smashing Young anywhere after pick 180 as his favorite "break glass" QB3.

Pete Overzet said Bryce Young’s QB28 ADP is a mistake now that everything around the sophomore has been fixed. Carolina returns all five starting linemen, kept the same play-caller, and used the No. 8 pick on Tetairoa McMillan to give Young the true alpha he lacked in 2023. Overzet added that the front office largely ignored the secondary and instead poured resources into the defensive front, a signal they are comfortable winning 34-31 dome shootouts inside the NFC South. That combination of shootout game scripts, improved pass protection, and Young’s sneaky rushing upside—23 scrambles in his final five starts—makes him a top-12 weekly ceiling bet who still costs less draft capital than most fantasy backups. Overzet is loading up now before projection models push Young into the mid-teens by July.

Hayden Winks argued that Bryce Young’s QB28 price tag makes no sense after Carolina’s offseason overhaul. Young quietly finished 2023 with three straight 20-point fantasy outings, and Winks expects another step forward now that the entire offensive line returns healthy, Tetairoa McMillan arrives as a true alpha, and Dave Canales keeps the up-tempo scheme that produced multiple late-season shootouts. The front office poured resources into the defensive front but largely ignored the secondary, a signal Winks interprets as a green light for more high-scoring games in a dome-heavy NFC South. Add in Young’s underrated rushing (23 scrambles over his final five starts) and the cheap stacking partners—Chuba Hubbard and Xavier Legette both go after pick 75—and Winks thinks the sophomore passer offers top-12 weekly ceilings while costing less draft capital than most backup quarterbacks.

Pat Kerrane argued that a 30-pick slide on Bryce Young turned him into an auto-click as a QB3, even on rosters originally designed to stop at two passers. The team had already selected Chuba Hubbard and both top receivers (Xavier Legette and Jalen Coker), so Young completed a cheap double stack that unlocks an entirely new playoff ceiling without meaningfully sacrificing draft capital. Kerrane pushed back on rigid roster-construction rules, noting that Best Ball Mania’s three-week final rewards diversification: three correlated quarterbacks give you multiple outs for a spike-week path. With Young’s ADP hovering around 170 but occasionally free-falling into the 200s, Kerrane thinks scooping the discount captures massive closing-line value if Carolina’s overhauled offense shows any preseason competence.

Erik Beimfohr cautioned drafters against treating Bryce Young’s final six games of 2024 as proof the former No. 1 pick has ‘figured it out.’ Young was benched earlier in the season and only reclaimed the job after Andy Dalton’s car accident. Even with a mild improvement down the stretch, his 5.2 adjusted yards per attempt still ranked bottom-three among starters, and at 5' 10" he profiles similarly to Teddy Bridgewater from a ceiling standpoint. Beimfohr worries the market is ignoring a year-and-a-half sample of league-worst efficiency because of a tiny hot streak. Carolina could pivot to a run-heavy approach if Young regresses, capping both his own fantasy output and the Panthers’ passing volume. Beimfohr advised treating Young as a late-round QB3 in Best Ball or superflex, rather than buying into mid-round steam driven by recency bias.