What Exactly Caused Bryces Turnaround?

[TG_General]

I'm no sports psychologist but it does seem like he got through a serious mental block.

Someone mentioned above that Thielen alluded to Bryce feeling like he needed to be perfect every play. That feels accurate.

Just from watching, it feels like Bryce 1.0 was playing to not mess up (which is the #1 way to make mess up!) instead of just playing the game. Silly as it may seem, watching him dance after running one in yesterday led me to believe Bryce 2.0 is a thing and a legitimate one at that. In the past, it seemed like he felt the need to remain stoic at all times, which is cool if it's your personality but probably is a pretty uncomfortable facade to keep up.

Looking back and seeing the way he showed emotion at Bama, that stoic guy isn't him.

He's playing the game again, smiling and having fun. Credit to him because having to take a step back like he did could have been a fatal blow for the confidence.

I just want to continue to see progress week to week. It won't necessarily be linear but that's OK. He's breaking through blocks and barriers we weren't sure were possible a few weeks ago. Who knows where that trajectory takes him?

[PanthersATL]

19 minutes ago, Mistuh Jones said:

I think it's called Dave Canales earning his damn paycheck. 

Contender for coach of the year?  COTY doesn't require winning all the games - it could also apply to success in turning a franchise around

[Panthering]

It's impossible to tell without being in the building but the biggest thing for me is confidence in himself, which happened once he finally had confidence in the offensive line which for some reason didn't happen until after his benching. Him being benched was his first football failure of his football life, he's been successful at every level since high school on incredibly talented teams.

Biggest difference I've seen with him is staying in the pocket and also keeping his eyes up. He's legitimately eating big hits on the chin like a pro and still delivering darts. He's suddenly unshakeable it's great to see. I thought he always flashed some good throws with some anticipation so that's been there, with his confidence back his accuracy also returned to form. He still has to work on balls to the boundary but those are notoriously difficult. 

tl;dr: confidence. 

[jb2288]

Nobody could have succeeded last year, it was an awful offensive roster with even worse coaching I've been screaming that for a year. Watch some of the film of last year playcalling vs this years, it's an insane difference. 

but to directly answer your question, I think last year not only slowed Bryce's improvement but made him regress. My opinion is he was worse this year Game 1 at Saints than he would have been if he just took a year off in 2023 from football. The last staff absolutely ruined him. I wrote him off, said after the first play of the Saint's game when he threw the int he was done and no coming back. Sitting seemed to have let him get back to being the dude he was coming out of Alabama, and what we are seeing now I believe is what the 1st overall pick looks like 5 games into their rookie year. 

[Ted Ginn Jr.'s Hands]

The development of the o line has made a big difference but one thing i noticed is he doesn't panic in the pocket as much.  There were several plays yesterday where tampa players got loose in the backfield, and he evaded pressure or stepped into a clean area.   Pre benching he seemed to panic and run into pressure a lot.

[Bama Panther]

25 minutes ago, SmokinwithWilly said:

It doesn't matter if they're pro level teammates or not. Bama consistently has one of the top recruiting classes in the country. The best talent is coming to Alabama vs a majority of other schools they play. It is true and it's documented. 

Your premise may hold true if Bryce only performed exceptionally well against teams like Vandy, Miss St, etc. Where it breaks down is Bryce’s performance against teams like LSU, UGA, Ole Miss, Texas A&M, etc. Bryce performed just as well against those highly ranked recruiting teams as well. So it wasn’t just an effect of playing with far better teammates against far lesser talent. 

Personally, I think Bryce was trying to hard to be perfect during year one, while also suffering from frantic play due to the pressure defenses applied to him. I hope his recent play is indicative of what his future play will be like. 

[Jay Roosevelt]

I said back in September the problem was primarily mental/confidence related. He apparently regained a good amount of his confidence while on the bench.

[HaricotVert]

He was waiting for a critical mass of huddle posters to turn on him before he got serious about playing the position.

[Khaki Lackey]

My conspiracy theory: he was hiding an arm injury. His throws look so much better than last year. (probably because he's actually throwing downfield with some confidence for the first time, but that's not as fun as a conspiracy theory.)

[Move the Panthers to Raleigh]

He started listening to Jocko Willink's podcast.

[UNCrules2187]

Obviously this is small sample size and I still think Stroud should've been the pick, but pretty remarkable how similarly the two have been performing since Bryce was inserted back as the starting QB. Here are their combined stats over the past 6 weeks (starting with Bryce's first start at Denver):

Young: 102/169 (60.3%), 1,082 yards (6.4 YPA), 6 TDs, 3 INTs, 15 carries, 82 yards (5.5 YPC), 1 rush TD, 83.5 QB rating (taken 7 sacks)
Stroud: 120/201 (59.7%), 1,454 yards (7.2 YPA), 5 TDs, 4 INTs, 21 carries, 105 yards (5.0 YPC), 81.2 QB rating (taken 21 sacks)
 

Edited 2 hours ago by UNCrules2187

[dave-o]

We still suck and I dont believe he is our future but anyway...  We almost...  Almost beat a bad team yesterday...

[Ricky Spanish]

1 hour ago, Jon Snow said:

He started to believe in himself again. For all the talk about an Allstar coaching staff nothing they did showed they believed in him.

The benching for that hail mary broke him last year. Frank didn't want him and wasn't going to do anything to help improve his macanics until year 2. It was a bad situation all around. 

Now he seems to say f*ck it, I'm going to do this on my own if I have to. I hope he can pull it off.

[d-dave]

It's perspective.  When you step away from a complex problem for a bit, then you can come back and attack it.  It's how I deal with things that are hard at work.  I'll do something else, watch someone else do it, get mad at them for being dumb, and then do it the way I want to get the results I want.  

At a certain point, your skills and training take over.  The click that people have.  In my photography journey, I started off bad.  Really bad.  I had no idea what I was doing.  Then as i learned more about light, things got better.  But then it clicked at the last event I shot, and I got some incredible photos because my brain and body learned to work together along with my intuition.

I've been really thrilled with Bryce the past few weeks.  I think he's turning that corner.  It doesn't mean he's going to destroy the Eagles, but even if the Eagle end up turning us into a speedbump, there will still be solid growth from that game.

If nothing else, he's shown he' the guy for the now and near future.  We should definitely know if he's worth it after next year.