National Football League

Is Bryce Young proving he is the Panthers' QB of the future after all?

Updated Dec. 10, 2024 11:18 a.m. ET

Oh, to be Young again.

The Carolina Panthers (3-11) have extensive experience this season reminding that there are no moral victories in the NFL, but a stretch of three straight close losses to likely playoff teams has at least resurrected the idea that second-year pro Bryce Young could still be Carolina's future at quarterback.

First-year coach Dave Canales pointed to his quarterback's tattered appearance from pulling away from defenders throughout a close loss to the Eagles on Sunday — "he's got stuff hanging all down his shirt afterwards" — as evidence of his persistence, both on that day and throughout a difficult first two seasons.

"Just his competitive nature coming alive in that moment to keep it alive and make somebody miss," Canales said. "It's the passion that this whole group plays with. Bryce is certainly a part of that. The fight to just say, as long as we have time and downs, we have a chance. So that part was great. Just to continue to see it show up week in and week out shows the understanding and the grasp of all the things that we're doing to find guys in those situations."

If you needed a metaphor for Young at this stage in his NFL career, try this play: third-and-11 from his own 2-yard line, needing a touchdown, down four points to the Eagles with less than three minutes to play. Young weaved through multiple Philadelphia defenders while still in the end zone, scrambled up and threw a 31-yard pass to rookie Xavier Legette to keep hopes alive. He would also convert a fourth down on the drive, which ultimately stalled at the Eagles' 32, and only after Legette couldn't hold on to another Young pass at the goal line.

"Especially when you get a team like that, we knew it was going to take everything," Young said after the loss. "It was going to take execution at the highest level. And we wear that as a team, as a unit, as a group, as an entire team. We didn't get it done. It's on all of us. There are zero individuals. I look in the mirror individually, and then we all have that mindset."

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Young seems to have benefited from five games on the bench, rare for such a high draft pick. After a win in veteran Andy Dalton's first start, Carolina struggled to even compete, losing their next four by 10, 26, 18 and 33 points. It took Dalton injuring his thumb in a car accident for Young to get back in the starting lineup in late October, but he soon led the Panthers to back-to-back victories against the Saints and Giants, and put the team in position to pull off three upsets that all ultimately came up short.

Down 11 points to the defending champion Chiefs three weeks ago, Young rallied the Panthers back to tie the game with 1:46 left, only to see Carolina's defense give up a drive and lose on a Kansas City field goal as time expired.
Down four to the Bucs late, Young threw a go-ahead touchdown pass to Adam Thielen with 0:30 left, only to see Carolina's defense give up a tying field goal as time expired. In overtime, he had the Panthers at the Bucs' 30 before Chuba Hubbard fumbled, setting up their game-winning field goal.
And on Sunday, Young had Carolina ahead of the Eagles in the fourth quarter, only to lose the lead. Young led the Panthers to the Eagles' 27 and 32 on fourth-quarter drives that ended with fourth-down misses.

So has Young shown enough that the Panthers don't need to use their No 1 pick — they'd be at No. 4 overall right now — on another quarterback? He's still only 23, younger than rookie phenoms Jayden Daniels and Bo Nix, so there's still upside and room for growth while he's still inexpensive by quarterback standards on his rookie contract.

The recent excitement around Young has come in a five-game stretch where he's thrown exactly one touchdown pass in each game. He is 4-22 as a starter, similar to Justin Fields, who was 5-20 after two seasons with the Bears and still got a shot in his third season. Young's career touchdown pass total — 18 of them, along with 17 interceptions — is remarkably low for a player's first 26 starts. Many young quarterbacks now relegated to backup roles had substantially more after 26 starts — Davis Mills had 30 touchdowns, Mac Jones 29, Drew Lock 27, Sam Howell 22, all now on NFL benches. The best hope for success for a high draft pick after such a slow start is someone like Geno Smith (20 TDs, 33 INTs in first 26 starts) or even Trevor Lawrence, who had a middling 23 touchdowns and 23 interceptions at this point.

But with more time in Canales' offense, he's showing a level of comfort and fluency. In his first 21 starts, he never reached 250 passing yards once; he's now done so twice in the last three games. This season, the Panthers scored 14 or less in his first three starts, but now have started 16 or more in each of his last five, averaging 24 points in that span.

He's found confidence in himself again with the help of Canales, who got the Carolina job in part because of a boundless optimism and positivity, something that has survived a difficult first season in Charlotte. Canales made the difficult decision to bench Young — a coach's future is often tied to the development of his quarterback as much as his team — but has also now given him a second chance. Even high draft picks rarely get that from their original team, often needing a new team or three before it really clicks, as it has for players like Baker Mayfield and Sam Darnold in the last two seasons.

Bryce Young on his Panthers: "When we're executing, we're at our best. We are able to just focus on that." (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)

How Young can fare in the next month will help shape the team's decision on his future. Each win he pulls off moves them lower in the draft, farther away from the best bets in a 2025 rookie class not particularly deep on quarterback talent. Carolina has two home games now against mediocre opponents in the Cowboys and Cardinals, and if nothing else has a chance to play spoiler in the NFC South, ending the season on the road against the Bucs and Falcons, who are battling for the division title. Progress is one thing, but winning is another, as Young knows well.

"There are no participation trophies, no consolation," Young said after Sunday's loss. "But it does give us confidence to know that — Coach (Canales) says it all the time, it's about us. When we're executing, we're at our best. We are able to just focus on that. And again, it's not a consolation for today, but it gives us some stuff on film to build off of. The opportunity to identify things we're doing well, how we continue to do it, how we build off of it, and the same mindset of how we can improve on things. So I think just being in that headspace, it's good for growth. But now it's on us to make sure we actually grow and take those steps."

Greg Auman is an NFL Reporter for FOX Sports. He previously spent a decade covering the Buccaneers for the Tampa Bay Times and The Athletic. You can follow him on Twitter at @gregauman.

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