WR Jalen Coker Lands on IR with 'Significant Quad Strain', Out At Least 4 Games

Coker’s injury ironically came right on the heels of the Panthers trade of Adam Thielen to the Vikings – with the salt in the wound being the fact that GM Dan Morgan had expressed his excitement in seeing what Coker could do operating out of the slot this season prior to his quad strain. Now instead of hitting the ground running with QB Bryce Young and the rest of the Panthers offense to kick off the 2025 season, Coker will be missing at least the first four games – and potentially more. The silver lining is that all is not lost for Coker, who wasn’t being drafted highly this summer anyway; his ADP was well outside the top-14 rounds, making this missed time to begin the year less of a hit to those who selected him as a sleeper presumably with their final pick. It’s still a disappointment to start the season, though, as the Panthers seemed to have cleared the way for Coker to emerge as the big slot this season behind rookie WR Tetairoa McMillan. On the macro level, Bryce Young takes a bit of a hit in terms of his fantasy outlook, as he’s now down two of the three starters at WR he practiced with all offseason between the injury to Coker and the departure of Thielen via trade. One thing is for sure, though – without either of those two WRs in the fold, McMillan is likely to enjoy the target funnel treatment right out of the gate. He was an alpha WR during his time in Arizona, and with next to no target competition in Carolina, he should have no trouble racking up targets and receptions en route to plenty of valuable PPR production.