Sam Darnold (QB, CAR) - Fantasy Football Week 4 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 14+ teams/2QB Leagues

OWNED IN: 21% of Leagues

ANALYSIS: As ridiculous as it sounds, Sam Darnold has been around for three full seasons already and is now throwing rocks for the fourth season in his NFL career. He's doing so in Carolina, which traded for him this offseason to grab him as a reclamation project from the Jets after Sammy couldn't do much for Gang Green. Darnold has never finished a season above a QB27 rank--in other words, Darnold has clearly underperformed to the tune of 14.6 FPPG tops when he put up that average in 2019. But oh boy, has Darnold looked like a completely different player manning the Panthers' pocket.

Last Thursday, the Panthers became the one and only team with a 3-0 record in 2021. You read that right, and Darnold has been a huge part of that success so far. After three years of not throwing for more than 232 yards per game, Darnold has gone to rack up 279, 305, and 304 passing yards in his three games this season. He's completed north of 67% of his attempts in all of those matches, has thrown for 3 TDs against just one INT, and already has 3 TDs rushing--he had 5 rushing touchdowns in his full three-year career prior to landing in Carolina, just in case.

Darnold's only blemish so far has been fumbling, with at least one of them in each game played this year--two last TNF--but other than that the QB has been fantastic. Darnold has finished as a high-end QB2 or low-end QB1 in all games so far this campaign and it's not that the Panthers have a magnificent receiving corps. There will always be doubts because of his shaky past, but looking at how the 2021 season is going for the young quarterback things can't look much better at this point. Must-add and start in 2QB Leagues and a more than a reasonable option in slightly deeper formats than 10/12-team leagues with weekly appeal.

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