Curtis Samuel Fantasy Football Outlook (2020)

By Mike Tagliere (FantasyPros), Wed, Aug 26th 2020, 6:56am EDT

There are a lot of analysts making excuses for Samuel's poor production last year, stating that his quarterback play was atrocious. While I don't disagree, there are plenty of wide receivers who've had bad quarterback play but managed to be useful. Samuel's 0.96 yards per route run in 2019 ranked dead last among the 157 wide receivers with at least 100 targets over the last five years. Heck, his teammate D.J. Moore was able to finish as the WR18. Based on the targets Samuel received and where they took place, he should have finished as the WR16. Look, I'm not saying Samuel is as bad as he was in 2019, but for him to become a reliable fantasy player, he'd have to overcome the fact that he's now the fourth-best target in the offense, behind McCaffrey, Moore, and Anderson. The Panthers also tried shopping Samuel this offseason, but ultimately held onto him. He's someone to look at during bye weeks when the Panthers are double-digit underdogs. Outside of that, you're just looking for an injury to him to become anything more than a WR5-type option.