Bryce Young Gets Unfortunate Placing in NFL Fantasy Analyst’s 2026 Rankings

There’s no denying that 2025 was a success for Bryce Young in his career; he had career highs in passing yards and touchdown passes, and the Panthers made the NFL Playoffs for the first time since 2017.

Where the success didn’t come for Bryce Young this season was in fantasy football. Going into next season, one Fantasy Analyst doesn’t trust Bryce Young going into his fourth season.

Sports Illustrated’s Michael Fabiano released his “Fab’s way-too-early” fantasy football rankings for 2026, and the rankings weren’t very optimistic about Bryce Young’s potential in 2026. Young ranks 22nd in Fabs QB rankings for 2026, with some names above him that are more than debatable.

Young finished the season as the 19th-ranked QB in fantasy football, only averaging 13.6 points for the season. He did show flashes of fantasy greatness this season, but the problem was that his great games were few and far between.

He had five games with more than 17 fantasy points, which isn't going to get him starting in 10-man or even 12-man leagues. Even worse for Young, none of those games came consecutively, making him unstartable on a week-to-week basis.

Notable QB’s Ranked Above Bryce Young

The first three QBS ranked above Bryce Young are Tyler Shough, Daniel Jones, and Kyler Murray, and honestly, the QB with the best chance of being better than Bryce Young next season is Shough.

Daniel Jones and Kyler Murray enter next season with huge question marks around them and for very different reasons.

Jones is coming off the worst injury of his career, tearing his Achilles tendon in early December of 2025. An Achilles injury is arguably the worst injury an athlete can face outside of a head or neck injury, and it's severely impacted athletes' careers in a negative way.

As for Kyler Murray, the Cardinals could very well move off of him this offseason, and if so, a fresh start in a new destination could either be the start of his career revival or the beginning of a downward trend for Murray. He's shown that when healthy, he can play at a high level, but he just has to stay healthy and consistent.

Even with all these questions surrounding Murray and Jones going into next season, it still isn't the most ridiculous idea in the world to have them ranked ahead of Bryce Young.

Even if Bryce has a little more stability in his situation regarding health and the offensive weapons around him, he still needs to show he can produce on a week-to-week basis before climbing these rankings.

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