Christian McCaffrey's backup, D.J. Moore's floor: Panthers key fantasy football questions for 2022

what are the three key fantasy football questions surrounding the carolina panthers as they go into training camp 2022 it's time to break it out right now right here as we finish another week of lockdog fantasy football are locked on fantasy your daily nfl fantasy podcast part of the locked on podcast network your team every day [Music] greetings everyone and welcome to another edition of the locked on fantasy football podcast as usual i'm your host vinnie iron man i'm not doing this i'm writing about nfl and fantasy football for sportingnews.com the nba is in the spotlight right now so check out any of the nba draft coverage we have great stuff all around on the network our local experts as well as our flagship shows they're on nba here on the locked on network as well as a some good work at sportingnews.com they're looking at the draft fallout and early fantasy there for nba here on lockdown fantasy football we're going to take the moment here as the teams are breaking before training camp to examine the key questions for another team and today's team as we go to our second team in the nfc south we're going to get to all 32 teams the carolina panthers are in the spotlight here to close this week of show so we uh got through the entire nfc east and nancy north so if you missed any of those eight shows they're up as well as our first breakdown of an nfc south team in this series the atlanta falcons so check it out there for you on the feed if you missed any episodes but here we're going to focus on the carolina panthers so they have some key questions that we want to try to find answers to we'll get more clarity on that in training camp in the preseason when we see players in action in this new offense led by ben mcadoo thanks again for making lockdown fantasy football your first lesson today we are free and available to you on all platforms all right let's dive right in and as we've done we've looked at the three key situations so we look at quarterback there and then we look at running back and then some aspect of the past game looking at the wide receivers and tight ends so we always like to start at quarterback and the biggest question is who will start for the panthers in this offense for ben mcadoo taking over in week one so right now the heavy favorite is sam darnold he's at a pretty good camp for them in the mini version of it and training camp they expect him to settle in nicely this is a quarterback friendly offense we know why people go to bed back at you it's to contain passing games instead of going for the downfield aggressive make the mistakes of the big arm type passing game this is a west coast style get the ball out quickly rhythmic passing game we saw it in fact actually for the giants with eli manning where they were in the kevin gilbride offense and thrown down field and then they made the pivot there to bacadoo to get eli manning to be more efficient that's what they're trying to do with sam darnold here in the middle of his career he has a career crisis here but there's a couple things to watch out for you also have pj walker as your third stringer here he's got the history with uh matt rule there from last year and then you have matt corral their draft pick that you can look at i thought he was in play for an earlier pick either in the first or second round if he had not gotten hurt with his ankle injury there at the end of his time at ole miss he's a little bit undersized but good skill set good athleticism aggressive downfield arm so maybe a little bit different the way they reigned in in this offense with mcadoo but corral i don't think he's going to get a fair shake to really win this job i think they see him more as a developmental quarterback if they saw more of its competition they would have drafted him the way that kenny pickett or even desmond ritter were drafted there by the steelers and falcons respectively we talked about ritter and having a decent chance there because his skill set is similar to marcus mariota now mcdonald and corral they're very different corral's a athlete darnold is pretty much a pocket passer i know what you're gonna say you're gonna talk about his rushing touchdowns they were anomaly last year all the way through that texans game on thursday night everyone was talking about him running the way that cam newton did in the end zone but we know that's not sam darnold's suit they want to train him again from the one guy that was a big arm in the wrong systems to reining it in here getting the ball out quickly and taking advantage of having some very good offensive skill players so darnold should be considered a heavy favorite to start at quarterback for this new offense mackerel is there walker's just going to be a backup a veteran guy with the experience with corral being a rookie here with no teddy bridgewater in the mix but the wild card here is baker mayfield do the panthers go and make that move there's also secondary level of that could they go after jimmy garoppolo here they're committed to sam darnold worth the money for one more year i think they would bring baker mayfield into this mix to compete if he was cheap and that's the biggest hold up here with the trade from the browns they need to eat a salary everyone knows they want to get rid of them they don't want to carry that salary with the desean watson contract they had even if watson gets significant suspension here and it's not like mayfield is going to be contingency planned jacoby brissette is going to be the guy in cleveland when in if watson missed time which is the expectation there so mayfield that bridge has been burned by the browns there to bring him back so you look at him he's on the roster for now you could just sit there as an unhappy guy that sits out the entire year or the browns can say we need to move on not just for the money if we eat some of the money it's okay but so that we're not having a specter here of our former selves and seeing what it could have been with mayfield if uh watson has to miss a lot of time here so i expected him to be moved i think the seahawks are also in play with drew lock as their starting quarterback right now and geno smith being their other option you really look at the seahawks having to make aggressive play at some point so i think it comes down to what team can provide the decent compensation for the browns and also uh how much the browns are going to pick up the tab so leading to that mayfield could still very well be a panther come training camp and be in an open competition with darnold at same draft class there with josh allen and josh rosen and lamar jackson so they could have a battle here in that draft class and see who starts and there's an indication that mayfield may actually fit what they want to do better i think that's been the talk here that mayfield doesn't exactly fit what the seahawks want to do and there's a talk that maybe they pick up mayfield and they ship darnold to seattle remember there's a ufc connection there and pete carroll so there's all these things that still could happen here expanders but right now in their current form you would say sam darnold is going to be starter and you look at mayfield if he becomes an option i think you're going gonna turn to him quickly because if panthers feel that way and they need to acquire him and you remember he's the get the ball quickly play off the play action use the running game to his advantage that's where baker does his best work we saw that with kevin stefanski in that offense i think they just wanted a higher ceiling and watson provided that well baker provides a pretty solid floor in that type of offense so if they're going after there's a good chance that he can displace darnold he's had the better recent play and really better overall play when you look at their career so very interesting question when it comes to the ben mcadoo offense against status quo i don't think corral has a shot it's gonna be darnold you bring in mayfield i would lean immediately to mayfield getting that started gig all right there's a look at the quarterback key question for the panthers as we break down their fantasy football prospects here head of training camp and uh try to read into them and what could happen here in the preseason we'll get to our key running back question our key wide receiver question here in our next two segments before to that i told you at the top that we have great nba team coverage well we have that in the nfl as well it may be a little quieter now but if you want to catch up on what your favorite teams are doing and just on the league as a whole with our scouting experts locked nfl so much good news notes analysis out there here on the network so really proud to be a part of it here at jason with fantasy football again it's all in the same basket in terms of understanding nfl what their biggest story lines where teams are going and we want a lot of teams to have offensive success on this show to think about it for fantasy football but check it out your favorite show we've got you covered here there with your team and we got fantasy football we got locked nfl just a lot of good stuff here that you need to check out at a good time while we have a little less volume here with the nfl to uh kind of set it up and get your subscriptions going here for the lock on nfl and locked on team by team podcast in 2022 all right we will uh continue the show here in a moment but uh first i got to tell you about bet online betonline.net is your number one source for all your bidding needs and sports information find all the late sports developments league reviews and news including this year's nhl playoffs which are now in the stanley cup finals they're the avalanche about to wrap it up with lightning and major league baseball bet online is your continued source for all your sporting ranking information including live bending esports and scores and bet 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in replacing mccaffrey hubbard was a bit disappointing at times last year trying to plug and play and get that production he was a bit touchdown dependent there to get mccaffrey like fill in numbers to even be possible as an rb2 so what do they do they go out and get dantaforman this is not an insignificant move for the panthers because remember foreman and dontrell hilliard they were forming quite a force they're replacing derrick henry who had the foot issue down the stretch for tennessee so donna foreman kind of rejuvenated himself former star texas running back he had time with the texans but really came through well in fantasy last year if you needed someone to step up and it was a bit of a twist over dontrell hilliard for the most part behind henry so foreman has that top handcuff experience that he just had he had a workhorse in tennessee hubbard is a pretty good pass catcher but i think he's a limited swing guy overall while foreman can be a good red zone guy and punch it in so i have to tell you it doesn't look good here for one guy to replace cmc if he goes down i think you can get some value with hubbard and foreman they more spread out not in its rb2 ways but in more deep leagues as flex plays here i just think they're going to share the work in situations and that means hubbard again more receiver here in those situations and has explosive plays foreman is more of a straight-up power back so i figured that's why they did because i think there were some hubbard physical limitations last year there they also have a got to watch spencer brown running back out of uab they could also pick up someone but going back to mccaffrey we just can't trust him to be healthy right now we need to have a contingency plan so harvard and foreign i'm not sure that i would bang the table to make sure i get hubbard as a handcuff for mccaffrey but i would lean him lean toward him a little bit over foreman it's pretty close i would not discount this being a battle in training camp where they said okay who's in the best next guy up that we can put in for mccaffrey again it could just come down to the early downs of foreman and the red zone usage and then hubbard being more the later down guy the swing guy with some explosive plays and the receiving skills there so with mccaffrey what are the chances he stays healthy this is a tough one i mean he's had a lot of work i think it caught up to him early he's not big back here that's been part of it but soft tissue injuries everything had kind of piled up with mccaffrey here he shut himself down so there's definitely a concern and that's why i'm not going to invest too high of a pick on him and if you do and when i say too high of a pick you're still going to take him in the first round but you need to hedge your bets a little bit so i think there's a lot of people with different guys we talked about jonathan taylor and dalvin cook it's gonna be interesting to see that henry versus cmc who when healthy is better i think right now you've got to go with henry because he's a bigger back that can come back from the injury a little bit better than mccaffrey so something to watch for sure but you have to have a strong backup plan i think the panthers realize that they need another body besides hubbard because he couldn't be the full-time guy plug and play the way davis was from mccaffrey a couple years ago so you have format so unfortunately i think the question is how do they replace mccaffrey use a handcuff for mccaffrey i think it's going to be a committee approach here to do so situationally in 2022 again mccaffrey this is going to be pretty critical here i think he has to stay on the field and be somewhat productive i think it's the same goes there for saint juan barkley we talked about him with the giants when we uh broke them down here that this is pretty key and so you got to look at can these guys put it all together and be healthy and we're going to monitor their conditioning and all that and then you have to see where the replacement options here and then they change that definitely the case with barclay and mccaffrey this year now our wide receiver question is a little bit uh more intriguing and not tied to health here and looking at the handcuffs so we'll get to that in our final segment here on lockdown fantasy football before we do that i gotta tell you uh really uh check out uh all the great podcasts here on the network uh we have some great sponsors as well we talked about bet online early in the show bet online rock auto blue nile and built bar these are classic sponsors here that we're really just happy that are on board with the show here and all throughout the network you'll find information you need to know about all these uh fine places to uh get in on the action whether it's uh getting on the bedding action or getting that much needed the special jewelry for that someone special in your life or just need an auto part or just need to pick me up with a protein bar we've got you covered with the best deal so check us out there on the locked on fancy football feed there wherever we get your podcast and also make sure you check out what our sponsors do they do a great job for us to support the show and bring it to you every week and every day that we can here all throughout the season and off season all right it is time to close the show here looking at our final and the third key question surrounding the panthers offense here for fantasy football in 2022 we're going to focus on one receiver here dj moore and the question is what is a dna dj moore's floor and how does that compare to his ceiling in this offense regardless of who's the starting quarterback right now leaning toward donald so we talked about a little bit robbie anderson didn't work out where darnold and anderson had that good reunion as uh former jets here anderson was uh pouting he was trying to get his roll back and terrace marshall jr had some promise out of lsu but he can stay healthy you also have now richard higgins in the mix the former brown brandon zylstra shy smith andre roberts we know he's going to be more of a return guy for this team and you also have charleston rambo in the mix so looking at this offense it should be a lot of mccaffrey out of the backfield catching passes when he's not in their hubbard i can also see the tight end the versatile tommy tremble getting a few touches and a little bit maybe more 12 personnel with mcadoo and trying to be shorter immediate get the ball quickly i think dj moore can have a big year and here's why moore's a guy that can make a lot of things happen after the catch he's quick to do that he can also stretch the field and make big plays i think he's just one of the more underrated reality receivers in the nfl i think in fantasy we're well aware of what he can do but i think his floor is pretty high i think his floor is actually as a wide receiver too and he has some wide receiver one upside just because he could dominate the volume i mean we'll see how marshall returns for action we'll see if higgins can carve himself with a big role we'll see anderson and kind of just uh going through the motions here on this team as kind of a lame duck receiver maybe not as interested dj moore is a gamer he's been very prolific going back to his time in maryland that's why he was the first round pick of this team a little bit of that steve smith moxie there for him so i think that's also very appealing here with dj moore but look dj moore i just love this kid i mean i've had him on my fantasy teams a few times and he he's just a guy that you look at and all of a sudden your numbers are pretty good i mean he seems to get it done either with the volume or big plays last year look at the numbers very consistent there from last year to 2020 1193 yards in 2020 11 57 last year but the receptions went up to 93. really it's uncanny it's 1175 1193 11 57 those are his receiving yardage totals of the last four years winners touchdown totals four four and four i think that's the one thing that keeps him from really going to the next level he's also got a few rushing yards uh 40 22 and 48 yards he actually ran more as rookie when he was under a thousand yards been consistent 1100 yards so what we want is those receptions be up he also can average high a level of catch i mean he saw 1193 yards on this season where he had 66 catches that was actually his second i was told he had 87 catches in 2019 93 and 2021 so hasn't been a big touchdown score that's been the disappointment but half point pbr is there so his floor is still pretty high look at those consistent numbers here he knows his role in the offense overall and he's pretty adorable he doesn't miss too much time here for the scheme again has that versatility make big plays but also can do some damage after the catch it has to go up here i think he clearly is the number one let's get the ball in his hands quite a bit here that switched to number two last year so a little bit confident in his ability so probably sneaky that he sat three 1100 yard seasons again the teaser would be nice if he can even bump that up to eight you're looking at another 24 points in fantasy which is pretty big here that's another 240 yards and then you're looking at a 1 300 yard receiver there so if you can bump it up to 13 or 1400 yards and get that touchdown bump then he's gonna be really special as a wide receiver one borderline here so i really like getting more i think he proved that he can get it done with any quarterback if you look at those numbers that says the case for sure as the panthers had a revolving door between cam newton teddy bridgewater and sam darnold so that inspires you as well that if it's baker mayfield coming in there then it's going to stay pretty high up then i think that more is more baker mayfield's type of receiver is going to scheme himself open so part possession receiver can get open underneath but also stretch the field i think the biggest concern is the catch rate it's gone down the last couple years 55.9 57.1 so if you're gonna bump up the cash rate you we had massive targets last year 163 so if we can use that target rate to bump up his catch rate in the into the 65 range it's gonna naturally bump up his yards to like 1400 and give you more chances to score so make sure that cash rate is high in the red zone here for carolina but robbie anderson again i think he's fading i think he's been just a guy he has some big playability but that hasn't been rekindled here as much with darnold and d.j moore is just a good all-around receiver just like him he fits up profiles on number one and the key for him is uh getting involved and staying in that five to six catches per game there and getting those consistent targets so he can always produce 75 or 80 yards and then add scores here and there to a bump it when he's not having as big of a yardage day but you want to see him make sure you get 75 80 yards kind of build from that and get into higher numbers there so really like uh dj moore again regardless of the quarterback he seems to be quarterback proof now we just want to see him be use more of the red zone i think that'll be the case here again i think he's underutilized in that sense and you can also take short passes the distance here so if you get a little bit more consistency there and efficiency i think you'll see dj more live it up to a borderline wide receiver 2-1 here in 2022 all right there you have it there's a breakdown of the three key fantasy football questions surrounding the carolina panthers as they go into training camp here in 2022 that means our next team up would have to be the new orleans saints as we go through the entire nfc sound we'll get to all 32 teams so we've already knocked down 10 for you so we have 22 to go here and we will get to all them before training camp starts here on lockdown fancy football don't you worry about that we'll cut into a lot of teams next week there so looking forward to that and trying to set the table here for what we can expect from all these teams fantasy football wise in 2022. thanks for making lockdown fantasy football your first one today now make your second listen to the lockout nfl podcast for national nfl experts and insiders keep fans styled with the biggest stories the latest news from around the league is an off season doesn't equal break in the action for lockdown fantasy football this is vinnie ire have a great weekend and we'll catch you there as we continue our look at team by team previews with the new orleans six