5 Bold Fantasy Football Predictions About the Second Half of the NFL Season

Cam Newton Will Be a Top-3 Quarterback

By Leo Howell

I recently wrote an article for numberFire praising Cam Newton as the "ultimate" buy-low player in fantasy football this year. With the trade deadline looming, coming off of a horrible game, Newton's upside is tremendous and his value couldn't be lower.

But I'm going to take that one step further, and predict that Cam Newton will be a top-three fantasy football quarterback from here on out, and average over 22 fantasy points per game for the rest of the season.

Newton scores more points when he runs the ball more often, yet nagging injuries slowed him down early in the season and prevented him from getting the carries you'd expect. He appears to be fully healthy, and is throwing the ball as efficiently as you'd expect (15th among quarterbacks with 200 or more opportunities in our Net Expected Points per Drop Back metric).

Add in increased carries (he's rushed the ball at least 10 times twice in the last three games), and a favorable schedule, and Newton should soar to the top of the fantasy point leaderboards as the season comes to a close. As Graham noted, games against Tampa Bay (32nd against the pass, per our Net Expected Points metrics), Atlanta twice (31st), New Orleans twice (30th), Browns (20th), and Eagles (14th) provide ample opportunities to throw and run for plenty of yards and scores.

When Newton carries the ball 10 or more times in a game, he averages over 25 points per contest. Expect plenty of rushing attempts from Cam as the season wears on, and plenty of fantasy points for the Carolina quarterback.