Bryce Young - High Ankle Sprain, out minimum 1 week

[hepcat]

1 hour ago, uncfan888 said:

We could beat the bills if canales came out and gave Rico the bulk of the carries against their terrible rush defense. But I already know he's going to keep splitting carries and continue to fug up what worked 

I mean if Canales is dumb enough to trot Dalton out there and make him throw 40 times when he's got Rico running like a madman and Chuba to spell him, we're cooked. 

[tukafan21]

1 minute ago, 45catfan said:

Bro, he's getting another year whether you like it or not.  It will be the '26 offseason before any long term decision is made on Bryce.  The only thing that may get decided this offseason is concerning his 5th year option.

Well first things first, the 5th year option isn't something that "may" get decided this offseason, it WILL get decided this offseason because it has to, this is when they have to pick it up or not.

It's how you get into a Daniel Jones situation, where you decline the option, then he stumbles into a decent season so you extend him, just for him to revert back to his old form right away.

Bryce getting another year is far less certain than you seem to think, namely because of that 5th year option decision this offseason.

We traded the farm for the pick and then took Bryce #1 overall.  If you don't pick up the option, it's a hard sell for the players and fan base to bring him back as the starter next year.  And because of the trade and taking him #1 overall, it's equally as hard to bring in a true competition for him in camp, because if he loses, you can't keep your #1 overall pick around as a backup.

The problem is this injury now gives them the cover to make some dumb decisions

[LinvilleGorge]

1 minute ago, kungfoodude said:

Well DJ Moore had a parade of mediocre to bad QB's after Cam's arm died. Did his budding career suddenly go to poo? 

I think you are fairly dramatically overrating the idea that development for a WR hinges on "certain types of throws." 

That's really a very minimal thing versus the bigger issue(IMO) of just having resources that are largely being squandered to the detriment of your overall offense. Bryce's lack of success pushing the ball deep absolutely creates that.

But those ills aren't going to be solved by just bringing in a guy that consistently puts you in huge holes with crazy TO's. 

Getting a functionally BETTER QB will solve almost all the issues with the passing game. Unfortunately, that's just gonna be a tough ask during the season. That's really an offseason fix and we just didn't choose to do that this past offseason. We are now reaping that.

I think it's more about being able to fairly evaluate what we have. I'm sold on T-Mac. XL looked better than he ever has before yesterday which is promising. Coker is coming back and could round out a decent starting WR corps. It's not about winning games for me as much as it is giving Canales' offense it's best opportunity to shine and being able to better evaluate our young receivers. It's just tough to really see what we might or might not have when we're having to do this dink and dunk bullshit because we have a QB who can't effectively throw the ball down the field consistently.

[Jackie Lee]

Good thing we put zero effort into improving the qb room the last two years

[PNW_PantherMan]

1 minute ago, LinvilleGorge said:

I think it's more about being able to fairly evaluate what we have. I'm sold on T-Mac. XL looked better than he ever has before yesterday which is promising. Coker is coming back and could round out a decent starting WR corps. It's not about winning games for me as much as it is giving Canales' offense it's best opportunity to shine and being able to better evaluate our young receivers. It's just tough to really see what we might or might not have when we're having to do this dink and dunk bullshit because we have a QB who can't effectively throw the ball down the field consistently.

We are evaluating Canales as a play caller as well.  You can't really learn anything if Hendon Hooker is out there throwing games.  He is not an NFL QB.

[electro's horse]

If the panthers want to make Bryce play out the fourth year he should demand a trade. And then if there’s no takers, why would you start a player no one else in the league will trade for?

Also, what kind of message does the team send with “well we don’t know if he’s the long term guy after three seasons but maybe one more hey who knows”

 

[kungfoodude]

8 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

So is Bryce. Jameis just has a much different skill set that could potentially allow us to see more of the playbook and get a better idea of what we might potentially have on offense.

I don't think there is just some secret level to this playbook that isn't getting called. I am pretty sure we are pretty much seeing Canales offense. 

[LinvilleGorge]

Just now, PNW_PantherMan said:

We are evaluating Canales as a play caller as well.  You can't really learn anything if Hendon Hooker is out there throwing games.  He is not an NFL QB.

Yeah, I'm just afraid that if we take a slide as the schedule gets tougher and the offense continues to look anemic that it's going to lead to another Tepper reset and nothing about that should excite Panthers fans who've already seen several of those fail spectacularly. I'm all for trying to give this current guy his best shot before we see another one of those.

[tukafan21]

4 minutes ago, kungfoodude said:

Well DJ Moore had a parade of mediocre to bad QB's after Cam's arm died. Did his budding career suddenly go to poo? 

I think you are fairly dramatically overrating the idea that development for a WR hinges on "certain types of throws." 

That's really a very minimal thing versus the bigger issue(IMO) of just having resources that are largely being squandered to the detriment of your overall offense. Bryce's lack of success pushing the ball deep absolutely creates that.

But those ills aren't going to be solved by just bringing in a guy that consistently puts you in huge holes with crazy TO's. 

Getting a functionally BETTER QB will solve almost all the issues with the passing game. Unfortunately, that's just gonna be a tough ask during the season. That's really an offseason fix and we just didn't choose to do that this past offseason. We are now reaping that.

Bryce isn't an NFL QB, period.

XL, Coker, and Sanders will have gone 2 years without getting NFL level passes thrown their way in games.

T-Mac, Horn Jr, and Evans will have gone their rookie seasons without getting NFL level passes.

If you don't think that stunts their growth, then I'm not sure what else to say, becuase it just does.  They're going full season(s) of their career without the opportunity to catch the type of passes they're going to be expected to catch the rest of their careers when we get a real life NFL QB back there for them.

I think there is a real argument to make that as good as Moore has been, he still hasn't reached his potential due to his QB play.

[LinvilleGorge]

Just now, kungfoodude said:

I don't think there is just some secret level to this playbook that isn't getting called. I am pretty sure we are pretty much seeing Canales offense. 

I don't think so at all. This is not at all what he was running in TB. This is just what he has to run with Bryce at QB.

[hepcat]

3 minutes ago, Jackie Lee said:

Good thing we put zero effort into improving the qb room the last two years

Yea would have been such a great time to have drafted a late round QB to take a chance on but instead they have Hendon Hooker who hasn't played a game in the NFL. 

[electro's horse]

Just now, LinvilleGorge said:

I don't think so at all. This is not at all what he was running in TB. This is just what he has to run with Bryce at QB.

It feels like everything is tighter. 

like in Tampa it was the same offense, it was just stretched out another twenty yards. 

[SCO96]

9 minutes ago, Jackie Lee said:

Good thing we put zero effort into improving the qb room the last two years

Edited October 20, 2025 by SCO96

[kungfoodude]

5 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

I think it's more about being able to fairly evaluate what we have. I'm sold on T-Mac. XL looked better than he ever has before yesterday which is promising. Coker is coming back and could round out a decent starting WR corps. It's not about winning games for me as much as it is giving Canales' offense it's best opportunity to shine and being able to better evaluate our young receivers. It's just tough to really see what we might or might not have when we're having to do this dink and dunk bullshit because we have a QB who can't effectively throw the ball down the field consistently.

Yeah but that's also a fan centric mindset. The team has a better idea of what they have because they literally watch them in practices every single week. Not a 1 to 1 scenario, obviously, but THEY are much more aware of the overall capabilities than we are.

I generally disagree with the notion that a Winston or Howell type really gives a much better platform to evaluate anything. Plus, if you see the training wheels they are putting on Bryce, how big do you think those training wheels are gonna be for a brand new QB with literally no time in the offense? If anything, that's likely a more closed playbook than we have at the moment.