[The Athletic] How Bryce Young went from slumped shoulders and shaky footwork to soaring confidence

[scpanther22]

12 hours ago, PanthersATL said:

We've had this discussion before:  we ARE a big market compared to other NFL cities

Please stop continuing the false narrative that we're "small market", because we most definitely are not in terms of what's considered the team's support area

We are not a big market when it comes to the NFL stop 

1. The Panthers are a relatively young team. 2. NC/SC are full of transplants with other teams allegiance. 

[ImfromClayton]

I really appreciate the candid look into things here. It couldn't have been easy for those guys to say that. 

 

His energy had to be terrible for it to make an article like this. I'm very glad it improved. 

 

It sounds so stupid, but at that level, when everyone is good, something as small as energy level can make a big impact. 

[NorthTryon]

I really like this part, especially in regards to these two QBs already being out of the playoffs and everyone whining about what if all season.

 

From Week 8 when Young took back over through the end of the season, PFF scored Young with an 83.7 passing grade, sixth best in the league over that span. Young was just ahead of Mayfield (83.3) and Sam Darnold (82.3), both of whom had short stints in Carolina before the Panthers decided to go all in on Young.

 

 

[Navy_football]

22 hours ago, Ricky Spanish said:

Just curious - What were his very real limitations?

His arm looked stronger, he was decisive, he was throwing with anticipation, he had no trouble throwing over the middle of the field, and he even ran the ball with high efficiency. The only thing holding him back were the drops from the receivers and the defense not being able to stop anything. There were more 3 and outs than I'd like, sure, but other than the Cowboys game he played really well.

Dude! Why is this so hard to accept? No one knows if Bryce will become an elite to lead this team to a Super Bowl, but it's not fair to critique his production until they get him some real weapons.

Thielen is his best receiving weapon. I don't think anyone would argue that. What do you think Malik Nabers would do with this:

 

This is what our best weapon did with it. No lie. That's how this play ended. 

[PanthersATL]

4 hours ago, scpanther22 said:

We are not a big market when it comes to the NFL stop 

1. The Panthers are a relatively young team. 2. NC/SC are full of transplants with other teams allegiance. 

Unlike working as a [name any job that you can get anywhere in the country], There are only 32 teams with 52 starting slots-- any team with an opening is a place a motivated player will want to be, regardless of what team that is. Some players may have more choices than others, but as long as there are openings, there'll be players willing to make the move to play for the Panthers

And name a city that doesn't have transplants with allegiances to other teams. The wide spread of the Riot across the country (and in other countries) showcases that Panthers fans are everywhere. You shouldn't have to live nearby a team to be a fan of that team.

It's why I said "the support area for the Panthers" is larger than many other NFL cities. Green Bay? Tiny in comparison... but players are willing to play there. NYJets? Big metro, and players are trying to get out of there. 

[pantherclaw]

The market size of a team.means nothing to the players. 

There are players like Adam T, and Hunt that are willing to go, help build new cultures and turn franchises around. 

A good culture will be very attractive to players that are looking for a new home. 

[outlaw4]

7 hours ago, Khyber53 said:

You make a lot of sense here but I'd be happy with a Jared Goff level of capabilities down the road. There are, at any time, maybe only two to three of the stellar, world-beater type QBs in the league at a time. Right now, you're looking at Mahomes, Allen and Jackson -- all stellar, generational talents that bring something beyond human to the game. Those guys are rare, rare, rare. We had one with Cam. They are meteoric and when they're gone, the next generation comes in.

But those guys don't win all the championships, and sometimes never do. Yes, Mahomes has a shot at a third Super Bowl win in a row right now and Brady won like 17 or something. Good well-balanced teams with solid QBs can win championships and sometimes have an even better shot. 

A lot of making those guys win has to do with coaching, not just of the QB but in developing a game plan that works against each opponent -- shielding their QB from their own deficiencies (and they all have them except for those very few stalwarts like Mahomes, et al) and finding what there is in an opponent that can be exploited for a win. Good coaching, with a well-built team can do that. I think we are seeing that in Detroit right now, in Philly, too.

The question is, can Dave Canales and his staff be the guys who can elevate a team through game planning and research? Not sure yet, but there's some hope. I think the team needs more fine tuning in player personnel, trainers, scouts and position coaches (and I still don't really believe in our DC) before we are ready to really challenge anyone, much less take this division. Maybe this offseason can make a big leap. I sure didn't expect the team to leap like it has in the last half of this past season. Another jump in competitiveness like that and they'll be talking about the coach as a turnaround guru.

Wouldn't that be nice?

But to circle back around, yeah, right now Bryce doesn't look like one of those generational talents, but he certainly looks like a guy who is getting comfortable being out there leading an offense, who seems more sure of his game. And that... well, not many of us had read that one in our tea leaves back in September. Good luck to the Kid. 

Personally, I think Goff has one of the easier jobs compared to other QBs. His guys get schemed to where they're no one within tackling range and better yet, those receivers get ton of YAC as well. You still give credit to Goff for doing his job, but that's more of an example of a staff that is making everything as easy as possible for their QB.

With our staff, you have to give them props for working with Bryce after the benching. I do think, however, that the massive turnaround in performance took even the staff by surprise to where the bigger issue now is that we're not really ready to exploit his emerging skillset yet. It's going away from fixing him to more using him properly.

[mav1234]

18 hours ago, Navy_football said:

Dude! Why is this so hard to accept? No one knows if Bryce will become an elite to lead this team to a Super Bowl, but it's not fair to critique his production until they get him some real weapons.

Thielen is his best receiving weapon. I don't think anyone would argue that. What do you think Malik Nabers would do with this:

 

This is what our best weapon did with it. No lie. That's how this play ended. 

Our screen game is completely abysmal, lol.  Overall Sanders and Coker were decent with YAC but everyone else, including our RBs, were terrible. I think a large part of the YAC stats for WRs have to do with the kind of routes our guys run (depth of target is pretty high) and that the balls aren't thrown with the highest velocity. But AT is also just not a great YAC receiver, and it didn't really feel like we tried to get our speedier / more elusive receivers in on screens etc (Thompson or even Coker). I also think our WRs blocking near the los was VERY hit or miss.

[mrBdawg]

On 1/15/2025 at 2:11 PM, t96 said:

It's encouraging. I'm still not totally convinced he can be the guy for us. There are very real limitations there that were not improved on down the final stretch. Honestly I think his absolute best case scenario for us would be Jared Goff level -- which could be fine, but Goff has had his limitations show up in the playoffs too even with his resurgence in Detroit, and Bryce still has a long way to go to get to that level. We don't really have any other options right now (maybe Cam Ward in the draft, but unlikely for many reasons) so Bryce it is for next year and then we'll have more information but I still do think we need to work to find a guy who has potential to be more of a true elite franchise QB like a Mahomes/Allen/Lamar/Burrow, not the potential to be Jared Goff. But next year will tell us a lot more.

Goff? How lazy of a take is that? Goff who operates in one of the most stacked offenses with an elite O line, elite run game, elite receiver and tight end, top end vertical threat and probably the premier play caller in league? And sticks to the script every play.

Goff is a pure pocket passer with almost no mobility, a statue in the pocket who absolutely does not create. Bryce’s biggest upside is his ability to improvise and create which we saw him do extremely effectively post benching. I mean we just watched him rush for 6 touchdowns in the last 6 games and we are comparing him to Jared Goff