Things could have gone very differently for the Carolina Panthers this past season. While their five-win total isn’t going to inspire a lot of fanfare, the way that they ended the campaign has given the fanbase more hope than they’ve had in seven years.
The difference between this offseason and every other offseason since 2018 is that the Panthers know who their starting quarterback is. Bryce Young may have a few more highlights to get to official long-term franchise QB status, but for now he is unquestionably their guy at this position. Since Cam Newton’s shoulder injury against Pittsburgh that’s not been on the table at all for Carolina.
The key to discovering Young’s ability was patience – if they hadn’t given Young another chance to start after he bombed the first two games of the season they would be back to the drawing board noq, trying to find another QB1. Tom Dieberger at Sports Illustrated put together a list of one sentence for each team’s QB situation going into 2025, and in the Panthers’ case he lauded that patience.
“There might not be a better example of what a dash of patience can do for a young quarterback than Bryce Young.”
Then again, it was never a guarantee that Young would get back on the field. If not for Andy Dalton’s thumb injury following a minor car accident head coach Dave Canales might not have let Young start another game in 2024. If that was his call, the Panthers might have chosen to send Young away at the trade deadline and at the time their highest offer was reported to be a fourth-round pick.
Landing only a fourth-rounder in exchange for a number one overall pick after just a season and two games would have been a total disaster – the kind that this franchise has suffered too many of in recent years.
Thankfully, Young did get another chance, and he immediately set out dismantling the old narratives about his game. It didn’t happen immediately or overnight, but Young improved throughout the second half of the season and by the end of it he was a completely different quarterback – one performing at a top-15 level after having been ranked in the 40s after his rookie year.
The story isn’t over yet. However, with a little more of that precious patience from the front office and some better receivers, Young could yet develop into something special and worthy of that No. 1 pick.
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