Tag: Bryce Young

Carolina Panthers End of the Season Review

by: Knox Buxton

The Carolina Panthers won their season finale 44-38 in overtime against the Atlanta Falcons. I enjoyed watching the game and I was happy with the way Bryce Young performed to end the season. Young passed for 251 yards and 3 touchdowns, he also rushed for 24 yards and 2 touchdowns. He made the jump from being labeled as one of the biggest busts during the beginning of this season to being 1st among Quarterbacks in total touchdowns in weeks 16-18. Bryce Young also had a top 10 passer rating and no turnovers in the final 3 weeks.

The Panthers main problem to end this season was their defense. Losing Derrick Brown and Shaq Thompson hurt the defense a lot to start the season and it didn’t get any better at the end when Jaycee Horn went out for the last week. Horn was really the only good part of the defense this season because he was the only one to get selected to participate in the pro bowl. I think if the Panthers can build up the defense this offseason and add an elite wide receiver to pair with Bryce Young, they could definitely make a run and surprise a lot of people next season. If I was the General Manager of the Carolina Panthers, I would look to add Tee Higgins or Garrett Wilson if we could get one of them for the right price. I would also go out and draft the best defensive players available in the draft and make sure the players on the defense that got hurt are good to go to start next season. The Panthers have the 8th pick in this year’s draft and there are a lot of ways it could go when it comes to making their selection but ultimately, I think it will need to be a defensive player. Their defense finished at the bottom of the league in pretty much every category, but I don’t think it should be super hard to fix. In conclusion, even though Carolina finished with a 5-12 record, I think the future is bright and Bryce Young is the guy for them.

Carolina Panthers Update

By: Knox Buxton

The Carolina Panthers are currently sitting at 3-9 but they have been playing decently well recently. The Panthers are 2-2 in their last 4 games and have lost close games to good teams in their last two. They beat the New Orleans Saints and then the New York Giants in overtime the next week. In the past 2 weeks, Carolina lost to the defending Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs by 3 points and then lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers by 3 in overtime this past week. I personally have been pretty impressed by the way the Panthers have been playing as a whole. They had two big opportunities to beat Tampa Bay where Bryce Young hit Adam Thielen for a touchdown to go up 3 with a minute left. Unfortunately, the Bucs had all 3 timeouts left and drove down the field and got a field goal to tie the game to go to overtime. The Bucs got the ball to start overtime and they missed a field goal and gave Carolina the ball back. Bryce Young found Adam Thielen again with an impressive one handed catch on a third and five to put the Panthers in field goal range. Carolina tried to run the ball with Chuba Hubbard to get closer and make an easier field goal attempt, but he got stripped and Tampa Bay got the ball back. The Bucs drove the ball down the field and got a field goal to win. I personally am just happy that the Panthers look like a functional team again and are putting up fights against good teams. At this point in the season, I would just like to see them put together a few more wins and gain momentum for next season while securing a top pick in this year’s draft. I am also happy that Bryce Young has put together two of the best games of his career so far even though they were both losses. Chuba Hubbard also looks like a top running back and with Jonathan Brooks coming back Carolina has two good running backs they can use in the future. The worst part about the Panthers this year is the defense who is towards the bottom of the league in just about every category this season. In my opinion, if the Panthers just go out and get an elite receiver this offseason and build up the defense everything will be alright. I think Bryce Young is still the guy for Carolina, they just need to get him another weapon.

If Carolina can use their draft pick wisely they could be a good team next year. In conclusion, even though the Panthers are sitting at an ugly 3-9 right now, I think the future is still bright and there is not a lot more that needs to be fixed.

The Panthers’ Problems

By: Knox Buxton

The Carolina Panthers have started off the season 0-2 and look like the worst team in the NFL again this season. They lost to the Saints 47-10 in the season opener in New Orleans, and then lost to the Los Angeles Chargers 26-3 in week 2 for their home opener. A lot of people wonder why the Panthers are just so bad this year. The reason why isn’t just from one problem, it is from a ton of different problems added together.

The first and biggest problem in my opinion is that their owner, David Tepper, is the worst owner in the NFL. He consistently makes the wrong decisions such as hiring the wrong coaches, like when he hired Frank Reich last season and he didn’t even make it through the whole season before he got fired. He hired Reich after Steve Wilkes almost led the Panthers to the playoffs the year before even after they traded Christian McCaffrey to the 49ers and got off to a terrible start. The players made it known that they wanted to keep Steve Wilkes around, but Tepper obviously did not care and we saw how that turned out. In my opinion, the sooner David Tepper steps down as the owner of the Panthers, the sooner the Panthers will turn things around. Tepper just has no idea what he is doing and he acts more of a fan than an owner. The Panthers also seem to make the wrong decision everytime about what players to sign. They traded for Sam Darnold and Baker Mayfield in back to back years and neither of them could play well on the Panthers. Now Baker is playing the best football of his NFL career for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Sam Darnold has put together a couple good games for the Vikings. They selected Bryce Young with the first overall pick last year and have already benched him after week two of his second season. Young has started off his career 2-17 as the Panthers starter and I know he hasn’t been playing well, but the problem is not all on him.

If Mayfield and Darnold can play well when they are not on the Panthers, I believe Bryce Young can too. He has been given one of the worst receiving rooms and offensive lines in the league to start his career and as an undersized quarterback, there’s not much he can do about it. The problem is not just the quarterback position, it is just about everywhere on the field. The Panthers should start by figuring out if Bryce Young is the guy to build around or not. Then they need to keep getting the offensive and defensive lines better. After that, they should go out and get a top receiver who is in talks of being traded by their current team such as Tee Higgins or maybe even Deebo Samuel. That is the best way to start getting on the right track. If Young is not the guy, which right now it seems like he is not, they need to try to get a good draft pick and draft a top quarterback this offseason. They should not try to trade for another mediocre quarterback like they have in past years because we see how that has gone.

The final thing I will talk about what they need to do is they need to figure out who to keep and who to let go of on the coaching staff. Dave Canales is in his first season as the Panther’s head coach and it has not looked good so far. I get that we are only two games into the season, but if this keeps up he might not make it the whole season just like Frank Reich. At the end of the day, there are many problems with the Carolina Panthers organization, but I believe if they can start correcting their mistakes little by little they can turn it around.

Bryce Young and the Panthers will prove all the haters wrong

By: Knox Buxton

The 2024-2025 NFL season started on Thursday, September 5th and there is much excitement about this season. Lots of NFL fans and analysts have been counting Bryce Young and the Carolina Panthers out, but I do not think they should be doing that quite yet. The Panthers open their season on Sunday, September 8th in New Orleans against the Siants. The Saints are favored to win, but I don’t think it is as easy of a pick as people make it seem. Last season, the Panthers did go 2-15 and finished with the worst record in the league.

On top of that, they didn’t even have their first round pick because they traded it the year before for the first pick in the 2023 draft where they ended up taking Bryce Young. Bryce Young did not have a great rookie season, but I don’t think that it was all his fault. He was playing behind the worst offensive line in the league and also had one of the worst receiving rooms in the NFL. This offseason, the Panthers made it a point of emphasis to go out and sign offensive linemen and add receivers for Young. Carolina went out and signed Robert Hunt from the Dolphins and Damien Lewis from the Seahawks in hopes that it will boost their offensive line’s performance this upcoming season. They also traded up with the Buffalo Bills to draft Xavier Legette from the University of South Carolina with the last pick of the first round. Legette was a standout receiver in college and has all of the physical attributes to be a great player in the NFL. The Panthers acquired receiver Diontae Johnson from the steelers through a trade in March and he has potential to be elite in Carolina. Now that Carolina has made those moves this offseason, I am confident that the Panthers have set Bryce Young up for success in his second year as a pro and have the ability to surprise a lot of people this season

Will Bryce Young turn it around in his sophomore season. 

By: Tucker Burnette

After struggling in his first season as a Carolina Panther, the number 1 overall pick Bryce Young is looking to turn things around in his second season. There have been many excuses made for the young quarterback, but the key factor to success will be if the new hire at head coach will be able to help Young adapt and grow as a quarterback. 

Recently there have been some big-name quarterbacks who have struggled in their first season and then turned it around in their second year under a new head coach. A prime example of this is Trevor Lawrence. Lawrence, much like Young, struggled in his first season under the coaching of Urban Meyers, but when the Jaguars made the switch to Doug Pederson Lawrence flourished. 

The question still remains, will Bryce Young take the leap or will he be just as unproductive? In my opinion Young has all the skills he needs to be a superstar quarterback but he lacks the talent around him. This season his offensive line was one of the worst in the league and his number one wide receiver was Adam Thielen who for the first time in 5 years had over 1,000 yards. The Panthers also do not have a pick in the first round which means the top offensive weapons will be gone by the time they are on the board. With all that being said, I am not a sports analyst and do not get paid to have an opinion but Bryce Young is going to have to take a major step forward next season if he wants to turn the Panthers franchise around.