ESPN's Benjamin Solak on Bryce Young

[TheSpecialJuan]

From Dan: Is there any reason I shouldn't be completely out on Bryce Young? I'm hearing lots of excuses from some fans/media, and of course it's not all his fault. But what reasons should I have to believe that he could be a QB that leads a team to the playoffs? Because I'm struggling to find them.

[TheSpecialJuan]

I want to answer this with caution. Last year, in this very Week 1 column, I wrote about how rough Young looked in the season opener and how I did not see an NFL future for him. What sort of offense could work around a quarterback that fearful of pressure, that unwilling to throw over the middle, that lacking premier physical traits?

Of course, Young was benched, then came back and had a decent finish to 2024. It wasn't anything revolutionary, but it was better than I thought an offense could be built around Young. My foot was firmly in my mouth.

So you shouldn't be completely out for that reason. We have seen it work for Young at times -- the Week 18 game against Atlanta, along with Week 12 against the Chiefs. Dave Canales can do enough with Young that, in theory, a team with a great running game and great defense could get over the hump.

But the Panthers do not have a great running game and certainly don't have a great defense. As we saw against the Jaguars, Young still harbors plenty of that erratic, undersized, overwhelmed passer we saw for much of 2023 and 2024. It's a thin needle to thread, building a team around a QB who has to throw with so much anticipation but also mostly outside of the numbers. The passing game becomes one-dimensional and predictable.

Last year I said a flat "no" on Young. Hopefully I'm a year wiser now. So it's not a hard "no." But I remain very dubious.

[frankw]

He's been blown out by the Jaguars twice now. And the other time they were starting their backup.

[jfra78]

Its a no dawg

[TheSpecialJuan]

8 minutes ago, TheSpecialJuan said:

But the Panthers do not have a great running game and certainly don't have a great defense. As we saw against the Jaguars, Young still harbors plenty of that erratic, undersized, overwhelmed passer we saw for much of 2023 and 2024. It's a thin needle to thread, building a team around a QB who has to throw with so much anticipation but also mostly outside of the numbers. The passing game becomes one-dimensional and predictable.

This is exactly what happened on Sunday 

[Waldo]

Always comparing him at his worst to make his best look better which is just mid. Just go with play it out and deal with it in the offseason over that drivel. Being proven wrong is hard t poo do when mid is his best...and it takes checked out team or Atlanta out there practicing with a rookie at the end of the year. 

[CRA]

[FutureDynasty]

I can't wait until the team moves on. Give me something to hope for in the future Dan. Save your friend Dave before C0@CH K1LL@H gets him the axe!

[Stumpy]

3 hours ago, TheSpecialJuan said:

From Dan: Is there any reason I shouldn't be completely out on Bryce Young? I'm hearing lots of excuses from some fans/media, and of course it's not all his fault. But what reasons should I have to believe that he could be a QB that leads a team to the playoffs? Because I'm struggling to find them.

 

2 hours ago, FutureDynasty said:

I can't wait until the team moves on. Give me something to hope for in the future Dan. Save your friend Dave before C0@CH K1LL@H gets him the axe!

Can't believe Morgan is finally starting to see it... lmao

[LinvilleGorge]

So basically you shouldn't be out because on his best days Bryce can be mid-tier? Yeah, that's WHY I'm out. He's mostly terrible and when the season is lost he can be mid and maybe win a couple of games to tank your draft stock and give you false hope. That's not QB purgatory, that's QB hell.

[Stumpy]

4 hours ago, LinvilleGorge said:

So basically you shouldn't be out because on his best days Bryce can be mid-tier? Yeah, that's WHY I'm out. He's mostly terrible and when the season is lost he can be mid and maybe win a couple of games to tank your draft stock and give you false hope. That's not QB purgatory, that's QB hell.

You're burying the lede... our GM is writing to Benjamin "Lack of Epithet" Solak for advice on what to do with our QB!

[CarolinaLivin]

https://x.com/keeppurringben/status/1965594517077459418?s=46

[The Lobo]

“Panthers do not have a great running game” am I crazy for thinking he’s wrong? Chubba and the OL were fantastic last year in the run game. 

[PanthersNCSU]

I've listened to some things that have calmed the "Bryce was flat out terrible" to just "he was really bad" in Week 1. It's Year 3 though, and that shouldn't be the barometer. I've got 1% hope left for Bryce, and that's just blind homerism coming out. 

I'm scared that as much emphasis as the team places on advanced stats and PFF that the team *doesn't* think Bryce was that bad in Week 1. Couple that with so many of the QBs in the league looking rough, offense being down in general, and I feel like there's a lot of "what if's" going on in the building instead of facing the music. 

Lose Week 2, and we should switch the main focus back to building/churning the roster, evaluating young guys, and hoping our next QB can have a Jayden Daniels level of impact. As we're all well too aware of, QB is a crapshoot a lot of the time. Admit we made a bad pick, and go draft another. And another. Repeat until correct.