Jalen Coker Is Here to Stay: Fantasy Football

Last week I was wrong about not looking to play Jalen Coker in fantasy football. It felt like the hype had gone a bit out of control after his huge 33.8 point performance in Week 1.

While I’m not sold on Coker being a league winner, you can play him with confidence in your FLEX at this point. To first give some context on why I wasn’t sold on Coker, he had just 8.2 PPG in 2025 and 8.4 in 2024.

The following week, the Carolina Panthers took on the Atlanta Falcons, in which Coker had 14.6 points. That’s really solid production. Don’t get me wrong, but what impressed me more was not just the raw fantasy points.

Jalen Coker Week 2 Usage (Fantasy Football)

At this point, it’s clear how the Panthers are running their passing attack; it’s through Coker and Tetairoa McMillan with very consolidated targets and opportunities. In Week 2, McMillan had 53 snaps, 36 routes run, and nine targets, compared to Coker at 50 snaps, 34 routes run, along with nine targets.

Outside of those two, the next leading receiver in terms of snaps was Mitchell Evans (TE) with 38, and for routes run, that was Xavier Legette at 26.

To see Coker command 9 targets in back-to-back weeks is noteworthy to me, and I’m a bit worried that the receptions will go down, as he caught eight once again, but it’s not as if I was ever extremely down on him as a talent either.

With Bryce Young playing well thus far as well, Jalen Coker looks like he’s here to stay for fantasy football.