By Harry P McGill ยท August 16, 2026
There are two equally foolish ways to react to Bryce Young's afternoon in Buffalo. The first is to declare the entire season doomed because the Panthers offense couldn't manufacture a first down. The second is to wave it away because it was only preseason.
I'm not interested in either. Young finished 3 of 5 for 18 yards and was sacked once as Carolina's starting offense went three and out on all three of its possessions in Saturday's 29 to 14 loss. Nine offensive plays, no first downs and very little resembling the confident offense we have been hearing about throughout training camp. After sitting out the Hall of Fame Game, this was Young's first preseason action of 2026. It wasn't catastrophic, but it certainly wasn't good.
Context matters, especially when evaluating nine plays. One promising gain was erased by a penalty. Buffalo got immediate pressure on another possession, including a batted pass from an unblocked defender, and Young was sacked when protection broke down. He also made the sensible decision to throw a ball away rather than turn a dead play into something worse.
That's why I wouldn't describe Saturday as some quarterbacking disaster. Young didn't throw an interception. He didn't repeatedly miss open receivers. He didn't make the sort of reckless decisions that make coaches reach for antacids. The larger problem was that Carolina never established any rhythm whatsoever, and the quarterback is always going to own a portion of that.
Here is where the excuses stop. Young is entering his fourth NFL season. The Panthers have improved the offensive line, given him Tetairoa McMillan, continued developing Jalen Coker and Xavier Legette, and built an offense specifically around what he does well. At some point the standard has to become higher than identifying all the reasons a failed possession wasn't entirely his fault.
Josh Allen provided a rather inconvenient comparison on the other sideline. Allen completed 6 of 8 passes for 111 yards and a touchdown while Buffalo's starters immediately moved the football. Nobody expects Young to become Allen, whose physical gifts were apparently assembled in a laboratory somewhere outside Buffalo. But the difference in command was impossible to miss.
A franchise quarterback occasionally needs to rescue a bad play call, overcome a protection problem or create a first down when nothing looks particularly inviting. Young has shown that ability at times during his career. Carolina needs to see it consistently now.
Eighteen passing yards looks awful. I'm more bothered by zero first downs. Carolina's starters had three opportunities and never extended a possession. That matters because slow starts have been a recurring problem for this offense. Panthers fans have watched too many Sundays where the defense spends the first half on the field while the offense searches under the sofa cushions for a rhythm.
The encouraging training camp reports suggested this offense was moving beyond that. Saturday was an unwelcome reminder that the transformation isn't complete.
It reminded me of buying a new VCR in 1987 and discovering the clock was still blinking 12:00 three weeks later. The technology had improved considerably. The operator still had some work to do.
I would play Young again. Not because he needs punishment and certainly not because his starting job should suddenly be in jeopardy. He needs another opportunity to take the starting offense onto a field, establish a rhythm and finish a possession on his terms.
Dave Canales and offensive coordinator Brad Idzik don't need to reveal the September playbook, but wrapping Young in bubble wrap after nine unsuccessful snaps accomplishes very little. The next appearance should have a simple objective: move the chains. Give Young enough work to settle into the game, let him attack downfield when the opportunity appears and see whether the sharp quarterback reported throughout camp shows up when another uniform is trying to hit him.
Saturday did not change my opinion of Bryce Young dramatically. It did reinforce the question that will define Carolina's season: Can Young graduate from being a quarterback whose struggles can be explained into a quarterback who makes explanations unnecessary?
There were legitimate reasons the Panthers offense struggled in Buffalo. Protection wasn't clean. A penalty erased a useful play. The sample consisted of only nine snaps. All true. But this is Year Four. Eventually the quarterback has to make something happen anyway.
Buffalo was a bad afternoon, nothing more. What Young does next will tell us considerably more.