The Panthers’ Offensive Spending Is Misleading — and Bryce Young Is Paying the Price

[cranky]

A lot has been made of how heavily the Carolina Panthers have invested in their offense to support Bryce Young — yet, despite that spending, he continues to struggle. Most here believe it’s Young’s lack of size and arm strength that is to blame and no amount of investment could compensate for what he supposedly lacks physically.

That’s just BS. Yes, the Panthers allocate more of their salary cap to offense than to defense, but nine other NFL teams spend even more. And while those teams generally have established franchise quarterbacks, they also share another important characteristic: they invest heavily in wide receivers and tight ends.

When ranking teams by total dollars devoted to receivers and tight ends, the Panthers sit dead last. So, while Carolina may appear to spend heavily on offense overall, that spending is not reaching the positions that most directly supports Young and the results are predictable. 

Against the Dolphins, for example, the Panthers’ receiving corps consisted of a rookie, a practice squad call-up, a reclamation project, an undrafted free agent, and Xavier Legette. The tight end group included Tommy Tremble, another rookie, and yet another practice squad player. Five of the seven pass-catchers who played in that game had never appeared in an NFL contest the previous season — three were still in college, one was watching games from home, and another was buried on a different team’s practice squad. And yet when the offense struggled, it was blamed on Bryce’s lack of physical talent - not on the lack of experience around him.

The lack of spending on the receivers and tight ends isn’t a one year thing either. The Panthers have ranked near the bottom of the league in receiver and tight end spending in each of Young’s seasons. Their draft investments at wide receiver — Jonathan Mingo, Legette, Coker, and Terrace Marshall Jr. — have yet to yield consistent production. In addition, the front office has signed around nine free-agent receivers during Young’s tenure. Six were former practice squad players with little or no NFL experience. The remaining three — DJ Chark, Diontae Johnson, and Adam Thielen — offered mixed results.

Johnson proved to be a distraction and lasted only 13 games before being traded to Baltimore, where he was released after four appearances. Chark was serviceable but unspectacular and departed after a single season. That leaves Thielen as the only proven, reliable receiver Young has played with in Carolina — and notably, he is also the only free-agent wideout from that group still active in the NFL. In other words, over two seasons, Young has had just one receiver who could reasonably be considered NFL-caliber. Combined with questionable draft evaluations, it’s been a recipe for persistent offensive struggles.

Even with all of that said, in the second half of last season, Young showed significant progress. He played with poise, threw accurately and on time, and demonstrated command of the offense. With Thielen and Coker as his primary targets, he looked like a potential top-10 quarterback with pff and other pundits regularly praising him. This season, however, Thielen is gone, Coker is on injured reserve, and Young is left throwing to rookies and reclamation projects. Given that lack of talent, it should come as no surprise that both he and the offense have regressed.

The quality of a quarterback’s supporting cast has a direct impact on performance. It’s that simple. When Young had receivers who could run precise routes and find soft spots in coverage, he did well. Without that, his production has suffered just like it would with any QB. Blaming the Panthers’ offensive struggles solely on him is not only unfair — it ignores the broader context of poor roster construction and misallocated resources and judging him within that context is simply unfair and shortsighted.

[LinvilleGorge]

Just curious, but how many of those nine other teams have QBs on rookie contracts? That we're top 10 in offensive spending with a QB on a rookie contract is pretty impressive. We're spending a fortune on the OL because we saw that Bryce really struggled under pressure.

We spent cap space on OL and we spent high draft picks on receivers. You can't have top paid players everywhere.

[csx]

Its 7 teams that spend more on offense. The Bears are the only one with rookie QB.

[frankw]

For some people there is no limit to the amount of resources we should invest to prop up the guy who is the 4th highest paid player on the roster while still on his rookie contract.

Also as I noted in another thread our passing YPG is the best it's been since 2020 and that's with Thielen who has been hyped immensely out of the picture.

[tukafan21]

12 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

Just curious, but how many of those nine other teams have QBs on rookie contracts? That we're top 10 in offensive spending with a QB on a rookie contract is pretty impressive. We're spending a fortune on the OL because we saw that Bryce really struggled under pressure.

We spent cap space on OL and we spent high draft picks on receivers. You can't have top paid players everywhere.

Not just a QB on a rookie contract, but two 1st round WRs on it as well.

I can't see how anyone can say we haven't properly invested in an offensive supporting case for Bryce.

We tried to trade or sign for an established #1 WR and couldn't, so we did the next best thing in drafting them back to back years in the first.  

We have 2 RBs, so no need to go out and spend more big money there.

That really only leaves the OL, which we've properly invested in as we have a solidified RT, new Guards, and a LT also still on a rookie contract.

Complain we haven't brought in a better Center yet, but saying we haven't properly spent to support Bryce is nonsense.

[cranky]

16 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

Just curious, but how many of those nine other teams have QBs on rookie contracts? That we're top 10 in offensive spending with a QB on a rookie contract is pretty impressive. We're spending a fortune on the OL because we saw that Bryce really struggled under pressure.

We spent cap space on OL and we spent high draft picks on receivers. You can't have top paid players everywhere.

Really because according to pff, he had one of the better ratings under pressure last year.

[UnluckyforSome]

bUt BrYcE dOeSn'T hAvE aNy WeAPoNs.

[cranky]

2 minutes ago, tukafan21 said:

Not just a QB on a rookie contract, but two 1st round WRs on it as well.

I can't see how anyone can say we haven't properly invested in an offensive supporting case for Bryce.

We tried to trade or sign for an established #1 WR and couldn't, so we did the next best thing in drafting them back to back years in the first.  

We have 2 RBs, so no need to go out and spend more big money there.

That really only leaves the OL, which we've properly invested in as we have a solidified RT, new Guards, and a LT also still on a rookie contract.

Complain we haven't brought in a better Center yet, but saying we haven't properly spent to support Bryce is nonsense.

Trying to properly invest and properly investing are two different things. The bottom line is regardles of the picks and FA signings, Bryce had had a lack of talent to work with

[tukafan21]

Just now, cranky said:

Trying to properly invest and properly investing are two different things. The bottom line is regardles of the picks and FA signings, Bryce had had a lack of talent to work with

His rookie year 100%

Last year not quite as much because we invested so much on the OL and they were greatly improved.

This year, only because of injuries and XL's regression is it remotely true, but there is a halfway decent chance that moving forward the rest of the season it won't be an excuse for him anymore.

T-Mac is a clear cut #1 WR already.  Coker coming back, Horn finally getting to play, a 2nd RB in the mix, and if even a return to last year's XL would provide Bryce with plenty of weapons to where he shouldn't look like one of the worst busts ever anymore.

[cranky]

13 minutes ago, frankw said:

For some people there is no limit to the amount of resources we should invest to prop up the guy who is the 4th highest paid player on the roster while still on his rookie contract.

Also as I noted in another thread our passing YPG is the best it's been since 2020 and that's with Thielen who has been hyped immensely out of the picture.

You are missing the point. It's not that they haven't invested enough resources in the offense, it's that those resources have not produced talent for young to work with. 

[PNW_PantherMan]

2 minutes ago, cranky said:

You are missing the point. It's not that they haven't invested enough resources in the offense, it's that those resources have not produced talent for young to work with. 

What if Bryce isn’t enough talent to work with? 

[cranky]

1 minute ago, tukafan21 said:

His rookie year 100%

Last year not quite as much because we invested so much on the OL and they were greatly improved.

This year, only because of injuries and XL's regression is it remotely true, but there is a halfway decent chance that moving forward the rest of the season it won't be an excuse for him anymore.

T-Mac is a clear cut #1 WR already.  Coker coming back, Horn finally getting to play, a 2nd RB in the mix, and if even a return to last year's XL would provide Bryce with plenty of weapons to where he shouldn't look like one of the worst busts ever anymore.

True. Moving forward they should look better. BUT, as good as Tet looks, he's still a rookie, Horn is still an undrafted free agent, Legette still struggles and Coker can't stay healthy. IF, Legette can find some consistency and IF Coker can stay healthy, than I think the offense should be better. If not, than that will be on Young.

[PNW_PantherMan]

Every move we’ve made is wrong except drafting Bryce.

[frankw]

1 minute ago, cranky said:

You are missing the point. It's not that they haven't invested enough resources in the offense, it's that those resources have not produced talent for young to work with. 

This revisionist history that Bryce Young needs all pro talent at every position around him to flash franchise QB worthy play is wild beyond words considering what he was advertised as before the draft. And he himself happily participated in maintaining that hype by deciding not to throw at the combine because he knew how it would look.

He is 34 games into his NFL career. You guys cannot continue to throw every single player and coach under the bus and expect to be met with productive discussion in response.