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Man, I read that article and it was shocking how they were already talking extension.

Donte Foreman is a recent example. Offered him a cheap deal but he decided to test the market. I doubt we sign Rico as he was always a one year rental. Chuba is starting to outplay him as he gets healthy. I think Chuba is our main RB next year like the previous year.

Bryce is a dot thrower and not really a dart thrower. He throws some dorts here and there when he zips it. I’ve seen him sling a couple darts in his career, but it’s rare. He can never throw a laser though. Cam was a true laser thrower.

Not really... Bryce is better than last year; worlds better than the year before. Mind you, that doesn't mean he should be signed to a long term deal, but it's there.

I'd flip young for Lawrence straight up contract and all. Change of scenery would do both good

The fifth word in my quoted post agrees

I'm OK with keeping Young ONLY if we bring some other guys into the QB room to compete with him for the starting spot.

Transcript of a conversation between Dan Graziano and Jeremy Fowler... Basic gist: Both believe he will (and should) get the fifth year option. Graziano sees some logic into going ahead with an early extension offer but Fowler disagrees. Text follows: ______________________________ Could the Panthers extend Bryce Young this offseason? Graziano: I covered the Panthers this past weekend and asked a bunch of their people about Young. And from what I can tell, they still believe in him. They've used 10 different offensive line combinations this season and have a young receiver group, so the team seems to think the ups and downs can be blamed on more than just the quarterback. Young was excellent Sunday in beating the Rams, but he was far less than that against the 49ers the Monday night before. The week before that, he set a single-game franchise record for passing yards in a victory over the Falcons. It's hard to really know what the long-term outlook is when the swings are this wild week to week. The Panthers will have to decide by the first week of May whether to pick up his fifth-year option for 2027. I expect them to do that because the cost will be reasonable (around $26.5 million), but then the question becomes what to do after that. Fowler: This feels like the classic wait-and-see situation. Despite showing flashes, Young hasn't progressed beyond midtier starter status. The Panthers have overachieved a bit this season and have viewed 2026 as their true jump year. Whether they want to allocate heavy resources to a Young extension during a crucial offseason remains to be seen. Picking up his fifth-year option and having him play at least a portion of his fourth season on his rookie deal is a sensible play. But Young has two things going for him. He's proving to be clutch, orchestrating four fourth-quarter comebacks and five game-winning drives this season. And he's showing touch on intermediate-to-deep passes, completing 30 passes of 20 or more yards. So he's giving the front office something to think about long and hard. Should the Panthers engage, what's the sweet spot on his market, Dan? Eleven quarterbacks are making at least $50 million per year. Graziano: So, if Young is open to an extension in the 2026 offseason, I think it would have to be lucrative to make it worth his while. If the Panthers pick up the fifth-year option, they will have him under contract for two years at around $33 million, so it might be tempting for him take a below-market deal just to improve on that. It might make some sense to do a short-term bridge deal like the one the Packers did with Jordan Love after Year 3 (when he really hadn't played much, because Aaron Rodgers was in front of him). But I don't see what Young's incentive would be to do an extension next spring or summer that averages less than $50 million per year. The Jaguars extended Trevor Lawrence at $55 million per year after Year 3, and we still don't know whether he's their long-term answer. Teams do wild things when it comes to quarterbacks because they're so scared about having to find one. So unless the Panthers are willing to give Young top-QB market value, he could bet on himself and bet on the team being incentivized to continue to improve around him. Then he could play out the 2026 season and put himself in position to negotiate a bigger deal after that, when the Panthers would have him for only one more year, which tilts the leverage Young's way. Fowler: Teams are only as good as their quarterback options, and Young is easily the Panthers' best. He also seems to have good chemistry with Canales and his staff. But don't be surprised if teams slightly shift their thinking when it comes to paying quarterbacks and show some level of restraint. If you don't have a bona fide top-10 guy, why pay obscene market prices so early? That's an easy call if you have a Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, etc. But Miami (Tua Tagovailoa) and Arizona (Kyler Murray) are among teams saddled with bloated guaranteed money for good, but not great, quarterbacks. My point is that there's no rush, barring both sides making concessions that work for them. I think Houston could be more inclined to pay C.J. Stroud, another QB from the 2023 draft class, early. He has higher-end traits as a passer. ... NFL Latest Buzz: Week 14

And meanwhile teams that are out of the hunt have players leaving in free agency before the season's over.

The most basic way to put it: We have a clear path if we can sweep them and they just lose 1 of the 3 other games. They finish 2-3 We finish 3-1 (2 of those wins the sweep) We win the tie-breaker, we're the 4th seed at 10-7 That gets it done. We have to take care of the Saints or else it's pretty much done.

Legitimate improvement is really debatable

yeah, mobile posting has been a bit spotty w/ the ads

What I am not trying to do, is search within games every week to explain why the worst QB in the NFL since he entered it.....isn't just a weak and bad QB. This thread/convo isn't about an award. If it is, that's not a convo I am having. I do not believe BY is improving. Whatever degree is just too insignificant to matter. The Panthers are improving. And where they are improving this year, is really clear. I think about the Atlanta game the exact same thing I said about the Atlanta game last year. If you give anyone unlimited opportunity. Talking bad players. They will have a random outlier here or there. And you won't find my posts saying anything bad about his play in the 2 @ Atlanta games. I have acknowledged those 2 singular games were the 2 actual good games by Bryce many times.....lol, sorry that is real.

To be fair, Jake Delhomme has more than three years under his belt when he came to us. Bryce has shown legitimate improvement season over season. I don't think we can deny that.

TB will have to lose to both the saints and falcons for us to win the split tiebreaker. Thankfully the falcons game is TNF so we will know what needs to be done in about 8 and a half days.

Yep. Everyone knew the deal at that point. I liked the analogy Saban made. Like imagine it's the NFL and the Bears are headed to the playoffs but the Giants call Ben Johnson up and they're like "So your buyout is $60M? Cool. Done deal." and now you have a playoff bound NFL team whose coach is leaving to go to a division rival with the playoffs right around the corner. That's pure chaos and that's why the NFL doesn't allow that to happen but that's exactly what's going on right now with Ole Miss and LSU with Lane Kiffin. The NCAA has to put in guardrails to stop that type of situation from being able to happen.

Facebook status: It's complicated

Testaverde? (I'll see myself out)

Thing is though, you can analyze stuff from a bunch of different angles and still be wrong if the stats are your guiding force. I've watched enough football in my life to trust my eyes over my Excel. Stats have their purpose, and they work for some, but I've seen too many anomalies to make a high priority of them.

I asked because it ws double posted, looks like it's been cleaned up since though

Actually appears that you're trying way too hard to discredit any thing positive Bryce Young does. Just said the same stats would be fine for the award if it was by another player, but because it's Bryce it isn't good enough. He was hidden all game sans a few plays. Come on. You have to see what you're doing. Nobody here is saying Bryce is the guy yet. He's put up some absolute stinkers. But he's improving and if he has a good game, then he has a good game. If he has a bad game, then he has a bad game. Everything is either a bad game or comes with a caveat to you. What did you think about his 450 yards game against ATL? Gonna go out on a limb here and guess you'll say he only plays well against ATL and most of his yards were from YAC. Unreal...

well, there is a talk about what they should do....and a talk about what we think they will do. Both different. When is the last time the Panthers were presented with paying a RB vs managing the RB spot for cheap and made the cheap smart play. RBs and D have been the primary driver in all but 1 win this season. I think the setup is for the Panthers to be super dumb. Pay Rico. Extend Bryce. Then next year, you don't get the luck and outlier performances we are seeing this season. Predictable Panthers will be predictable.

That would be the incorrect one.

Keep getting guys on a 1 year prove it deal and let someone else pay the big money contract. A strong offensive line will get you good RB production.

I predict we let Rico walk for a big contract in FA. We will roll into next season with Chuba and Brooks. If Brooks isn't healthy then it will be ETN. God help us all.