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

[SmokinwithWilly]

4 minutes ago, mav1234 said:

T-Mac is already a very good receiver in this league and we've all seen how open he's been and how often deep balls miss him... We also did bring in a second very good back (and arguably one better out of the backfield as a pass catcher, tho Hubbard has improved a lot in that area) as a weapon as well. And fwiw, that back just went for more than 200 yards, which may not be an aerial benefit to Bryce but helps him as the leader of the offense.

Not about Bryce in particular, but Cmac, Achane and other backs can be a large part of their respective receiving games and can have weeks of being WR2/3 pretty often. I think that's an underutilized part of our offense. 

[PleaseCutStewart]

16 hours ago, cranky said:

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.

So... you are saying it isn't Bryce's fault and haven't invested enough on offense because we don't have the best/highest paid WR, RB, and TE in the NFL?

We haven't spent money on WR/TE because we literally have drafted a WR in the 1st round in back-to-back years... Tet is clearly a stud being held back by Bryce - he probably has an extra 200-300 yards and a few touchdowns more with a competent QB and play caller. We literally spent a crap ton of money signing the best possible guards in free agency 2 years ago (because Bryce was god awful against inside pass rush his rookie year) while also extending Moton and having Icky on a rookie deal. Meanwhile, we have a bunch of no-namers (outside of Horn, DB, and maybe Moehrig) on defense because they put all of their money towards the offense.

It isn't realistic to have every single position group on offense be the highest paid or elite. Look at the Bengals - they didn't invest in their oline and got Burrow killed because of it. Now, despite having the highest paid WR group, they are losing by like 30+ and struggling to score.

 

This might be one of the biggest Bryce nuthugger threads I have seen since his rookie year.

[PleaseCutStewart]

Honestly - is this cranky person Bryce's huddle account?

[PleaseCutStewart]

22 minutes ago, Khaki Lackey said:

Yeah, but he had a reliable WR in Thielan his first two years, and T-Mac this year. Not a stellar group, but he was billed as "a point guard that distributes the ball well." He hasn't been. Even our dipshit owner said having Bryce would save us from having to spend resources on WR. If you've got a good QB and good OL, you usually can get by with a mediocre WR corps, but we have Turnover Fred.

This. I watched Mahomes win a superbowl 3 years with literal JAGs at WR + a good, but old Kelce. Like the receivers were so bad that Kadarius Toney and Skyy Moore were their #1 and #2 receivers. That didn't stop the Chiefs from scoring 38 on the Eagles

Edited 4 hours ago by PleaseCutStewart

[SmokinwithWilly]

4 minutes ago, PleaseCutStewart said:

Honestly - is this cranky person Bryce's huddle account?

Would make sense because quite a few of his arguments come up short. 

[PleaseCutStewart]

Just now, SmokinwithWilly said:

Would make sense because quite a few of his arguments come up short. 

[electro's horse]

12 hours ago, SmokinwithWilly said:

Hard to pay FA WRs when you've spent so much of your cap on the oline. 

And no matter how much you spend on offense or how many picks, its not going to fix the fumbling issue or the footwork fundamentals that haven't improved at all in the slightest and those have nothing to do with anyone except Bryce. 

if there was a wide receiver and there was mutual interest then they could make it happen contractually. I just don’t think any WR worth a damn is gonna come play in offense where there 15 receptions a game and maybe two catchable downfield balls.

Like can you actually imagine a scenario where DK metcalf would come play with Bryce?

And about the fumbles, if we spent more on wide receivers they’d be able to recover more of those. 

[csx]

8 minutes ago, electro's horse said:

if there was a wide receiver and there was mutual interest then they could make it happen contractually. I just don’t think any WR worth a damn is gonna come play in offense where there 15 receptions a game and maybe two catchable downfield balls.

Like can you actually imagine a scenario where DK metcalf would come play with Bryce?

And about the fumbles, if we spent more on wide receivers they’d be able to recover more of those. 

McMillain has more catches and yards than Metcalf with very similar yards per reception.

Edited 3 hours ago by csx

[CPF4LIFE]

16 hours 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. 

Young has to stop throwing passes out of bounds, in the dirt, over heads, and to the other team for that talent to produce. 

Thats the point. 

[PleaseCutStewart]

5 minutes ago, CPF4LIFE said:

Young has to stop throwing passes out of bounds, in the dirt, over heads, and to the other team for that talent to produce. 

Thats the point. 

Don't forget at the cameraman's head and his o-lineman's head

[electro's horse]

1 hour ago, SmokinwithWilly said:

Not about Bryce in particular, but Cmac, Achane and other backs can be a large part of their respective receiving games and can have weeks of being WR2/3 pretty often. I think that's an underutilized part of our offense. 

The second leading receiver for the panthers is literally a running back. Like right now in 2025. 

[electro's horse]

36 minutes ago, csx said:

McMillain has more catches and yards than Metcalf with very similar yards per reception.

I’m just using him as an example of someone we were reportedly interested in. Also he wasn’t a free agent. 

[SmokinwithWilly]

29 minutes ago, electro's horse said:

The second leading receiver for the panthers is literally a running back. Like right now in 2025. 

3rd actually, but not by much, and I wouldn't consider 94 yards in 4 games an integral part of our passing attack. Our 2nd best pass catcher averaging 25 YPG is a problem all its own. 

[electro's horse]

Just now, SmokinwithWilly said:

3rd actually, but not by much, and I wouldn't consider 94 yards in 4 games an integral part of our passing attack. Our 2nd best pass catcher averaging 25 YPG is a problem all its own. 

Okay so it’s changed since he missed a game. 

94 yards in four games is integral in THIS offense. Thats why no good receiver would choose to come here.