[The Athletic] How Bryce Young went from slumped shoulders and shaky footwork to soaring confidence

[frankw]

Footwork confidence and demeanor were all night and day. If he continues to build on that in the offseason then we should hit the ground running once the season begins. But I really hope the team and Bryce are taking a different approach to all that this year. And everyone definitely needs a decent amount of preseason reps this go around that should go without saying.

[Loyalty4Life]

 

[PanthersATL]

1 hour ago, Manna said:

 

The real question for me is, will Bryce come into training camp now looking like a high schooler instead of the middle schooler this past camp? 

I hope he doesn't spend this offseason like he did last year (justifiably so), where he "disconnected from football"

He needs to keep focused, keep practicing, make those team connections.  Can still do all those things while "disconnecting and playing video games, shopping, hanging with family"...    

[Tbe]

41 minutes ago, Ricky Spanish said:

you mean like this?

or this?

or this?

https://www.nfl.com/videos/bryce-young-absorbs-considerable-contact-while-throwing-12-yard-dime

I’m a Bryce fan, and he can definitely make throws with guys in his face.

But watching taller guys play, you see times when they are completely surrounded and the OL is in their lap and they can see and throw over that.

Bryce can’t make that play but it seems like he is moving out of the pocket before that happens which is what he should do.

[outlaw4]

Not sure if this says more about how good the support Bryce had around him this season or how terrible it was his rookie season. 

I'm still inclined to say it's more the latter. Is there's anything Bryce learned his rookie season that was an aid to his development? If anything, just about everything that his prior coaches and on-the-field experience taught him had to be wiped clean. 

[scpanther22]

This would be a bigger story if we were in a bigger market because I can't think of many QBs that have looked worse and had the turn around he has

He wasn't just bad it looked like he didn't know how to even play the position 

[SOJA]

great article Joe

[MHS831]

2 hours ago, TheSpecialJuan said:

The Athletic’s Joe Person reports an anonymous Panthers source said Bryce Young’s footwork at the end of the 2024 season was “light years” ahead of where it was at the start of the year.

Panthers coaches worked primarily on Young’s footwork and drop backs while he ran the scout team after being benched in late September for Andy Dalton. For more than a month, Carolina coaches helped “to refine Young’s footwork and drill into him the importance of urgency in the huddle and pre-snap operation, which Dalton helped demonstrate.” Coaches addressed Young’s habit of jump-passing, which had proved disastrous over the first two games of the season. The result was a far more confident second-year quarterback who showed immense improvement over the final seven games of the 2024 season. Only six quarterbacks had a higher completion rate over expected than Young From Week 11-18. He ended the year with a 251-yard, three-touchdown outing against the Falcons in an upset victory for Carolina. Young, against many odds, has positioned himself as the Panthers’ clear Week 1 starter in 2025.

why the hell would that source be "anonymous?" 

"Psst.  Hey Person.  Got some intel for you, but you didn't hear it from me.  His footwork is light years better." 

 

[TheSpecialJuan]

[Captain Morgan]

 

after we beat the Saints, I can't remember who said it, a player or coach but someone on the Saints, but the quote was "this was not the same team we beat early this year."

 

Edited January 15 by Captain Morgan

[PanthersATL]

4 hours ago, scpanther22 said:

This would be a bigger story if we were in a bigger market

We've had this discussion before:  we ARE a big market compared to other NFL cities

Please stop continuing the false narrative that we're "small market", because we most definitely are not in terms of what's considered the team's support area

[MechaZain]

I was certainly one of the those worried about his demeanor. Big ups to Bryce for putting in the hard work to turn it around. Coachability was ultimately the reason we drafted the guy and he sounds like they were right about his work ethic in the end. 

[HaricotVert]

16 hours ago, Icege said:

Gotta help the bros that can't get behind the paywall

There is always a way

 

https://archive.ph/

You often cant play embedded media but you can access/read the content

[Khyber53]

18 hours ago, t96 said:

It's encouraging. I'm still not totally convinced he can be the guy for us. There are very real limitations there that were not improved on down the final stretch. Honestly I think his absolute best case scenario for us would be Jared Goff level -- which could be fine, but Goff has had his limitations show up in the playoffs too even with his resurgence in Detroit, and Bryce still has a long way to go to get to that level. We don't really have any other options right now (maybe Cam Ward in the draft, but unlikely for many reasons) so Bryce it is for next year and then we'll have more information but I still do think we need to work to find a guy who has potential to be more of a true elite franchise QB like a Mahomes/Allen/Lamar/Burrow, not the potential to be Jared Goff. But next year will tell us a lot more.

You make a lot of sense here but I'd be happy with a Jared Goff level of capabilities down the road. There are, at any time, maybe only two to three of the stellar, world-beater type QBs in the league at a time. Right now, you're looking at Mahomes, Allen and Jackson -- all stellar, generational talents that bring something beyond human to the game. Those guys are rare, rare, rare. We had one with Cam. They are meteoric and when they're gone, the next generation comes in.

But those guys don't win all the championships, and sometimes never do. Yes, Mahomes has a shot at a third Super Bowl win in a row right now and Brady won like 17 or something. Good well-balanced teams with solid QBs can win championships and sometimes have an even better shot. 

A lot of making those guys win has to do with coaching, not just of the QB but in developing a game plan that works against each opponent -- shielding their QB from their own deficiencies (and they all have them except for those very few stalwarts like Mahomes, et al) and finding what there is in an opponent that can be exploited for a win. Good coaching, with a well-built team can do that. I think we are seeing that in Detroit right now, in Philly, too.

The question is, can Dave Canales and his staff be the guys who can elevate a team through game planning and research? Not sure yet, but there's some hope. I think the team needs more fine tuning in player personnel, trainers, scouts and position coaches (and I still don't really believe in our DC) before we are ready to really challenge anyone, much less take this division. Maybe this offseason can make a big leap. I sure didn't expect the team to leap like it has in the last half of this past season. Another jump in competitiveness like that and they'll be talking about the coach as a turnaround guru.

Wouldn't that be nice?

But to circle back around, yeah, right now Bryce doesn't look like one of those generational talents, but he certainly looks like a guy who is getting comfortable being out there leading an offense, who seems more sure of his game. And that... well, not many of us had read that one in our tea leaves back in September. Good luck to the Kid.