‘This is his opportunity’: The Panthers are banking on a Year 2 bump for Bryce Young

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Adam Thielen didn’t need six weeks of training camp and preseason practices to see a change in Bryce Young. Thielen noticed something different about the Carolina Panthers’ second-year quarterback in April when the team convened for the start of its offseason program.

“I saw it the day he got back here for OTAs. You could just see his mindset, his energy, his confidence. And I think his ability to just be himself,” Thielen said. “It’s difficult at times to be yourself when you first come to a new place and to a new league. You’re just trying to survive instead of being able to truly be yourself.”

Young faced little adversity during his gilded football past, which featured starring roles at perennial powers at Mater Dei High and Alabama. But challenges arrived nearly every week during Young’s rookie season — in the form of a NFL-high 15 losses (14 in games he started), a league-low passer rating, a franchise-tying record 62 sacks, dysfunction on the coaching staff and a disjointed offensive scheme.

Such struggles could scar a young quarterback. If they left a mark on Young, Thielen hasn’t noticed.

“It was an extremely tough environment. But I told him this after the season, I think it’s the best thing that ever happened to him. I think it was the best thing that ever happened to me,” said Thielen, a wide receiver entering his 11th season.

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The Panthers centered their entire offseason plan around Young, beginning with the hiring of head coach Dave Canales, who engineered QB turnarounds the past two seasons with Baker Mayfield and Geno Smith. The Panthers then spent a good chunk of the free-agent budget on guards Robert Hunt and Damien Lewis, while trying to surround Young with more playmakers via trade (for ex-Steelers wideout Diontae Johnson) or the draft (Xavier Legette, Jonathon Brooks and Ja’Tavion Sanders).

History suggests Young’s production will tick up in Year 2. An analysis of quarterbacks drafted in the top seven picks over the past 20 years showed their win percentage increased by an average of 16.9 percent and their passer rating by 9.2 points in their second seasons, among those who started at least seven games as rookies.

Young wasn’t too interested when told about the statistics, nor did he want to make too much of the touchdown drive at Buffalo in the only series he and the Panthers’ first-team offense played all preseason.

But last year’s No. 1 pick and others are optimistic about his prospects in a quarterback-friendly system under the guidance of the uber-positive and communicative Canales.

“I definitely appreciate his approach. I think it’s just a great environment to learn, an environment to grow,” Young told The Athletic last week. “Being able to have conversations, be able to talk about things and hear his perspective — and just get as much of what he says and what he means.”

After the Panthers hired Canales following Frank Reich’s 11-game tenure, Young reached out to Mayfield. The two met during Nissan’s Heisman House TV spot, and Mayfield enjoyed a career resurgence in Tampa Bay last year when Canales was the Buccaneers’ offensive coordinator.

Young said Mayfield, who spent part of the 2022 season in Carolina, gave him a “great landscape” of Canales and his philosophy.

“He told me he loved learning from coach Canales, that he had a ton of confidence in them and all the stuff they did,” Young said. “It was really nice just being able to learn all this stuff. Out of respect for Baker, I’m (going to) be pretty vague. I don’t want to say everything. But it was great hearing his perspective.”

Canales’ offense has its roots in Sean McVay’s system. Canales’ final two years with Pete Carroll in Seattle coincided with former Rams assistant Shane Waldron’s first two years as the Seahawks’ offensive coordinator.

Thomas Brown, Reich’s offensive coordinator last season, also was in Los Angeles with McVay, whose offenses initially centered on a wide-zone rushing attack that set up a play-action pass game. But Brown’s ideas for the run game didn’t mesh well with Reich’s shotgun-based passing offense, and Reich kept flip-flopping the play-calling duties before getting fired in November.

Canales wants to establish the run first, and two veteran NFL coaches expect Canales’ scheme to better marry the ground game to bootlegs and play-action, designed to slow down the pass rush and get Young outside the pocket. Canales used the same concepts with Mayfield last year, as did the Seahawks with Russell Wilson.

In his only preseason action, Bryce Young completed 6 of 8 passes for 70 yards and a touchdown on his one series against the Bills. (Bryan M. Bennett / Getty Images)

“It fits with what we do because when you’re committed to running the football under center, in the pistol and in gun, then moving the pocket is the natural other part of all those other concepts. So it really just fits within Bryce’s skill set,” Canales said. “It’ll be playing that game of presenting runs and presenting actions to the defense that look the same. They all start off the same and end up different.”

Young believes the boots and rollouts can be a “really good layer” for the Panthers, who ranked last in 2023 in total yards, passing yards and were tied with New England for last in scoring at 13.9 points per game.

“I think Bryce is open to all of those complements,” Canales said. “It just happened to be something they weren’t doing (last year). But it’s just a part of what we do and he loves it. He loves being out there. He’s got all the touch throws, the creative passes. He uses his eyes down the field on the move, which is great.”

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Besides the designed plays that put Young outside the pocket, Canales has given him the freedom to create off-platform, as he did finding Johnson for a fourth-down conversion in the final preseason game at Buffalo.

“He’s a guy that can make any throw — throws that you see on those little TikTok (or) Instagram reels. They’re like, how did he do it? He can do all that,” tight end Tommy Tremble said. “A lot of guys say this: He didn’t win the Heisman for no reason. He is an excellent football player. So letting him just play free and do what he does best — and that’s just making plays — I think that’s what the offense helps him (with).”

Young averaged 15.8 rushing yards per game as a rookie, which ranked 20th among quarterbacks who played in at least six games. But Canales thinks there will be more opportunities for Young to make plays with his feet.

“All those actions, all those keepers, so many things come alive, (including) the quarterback running the ball,” Canales said. “Some of our biggest plays over the years have been on play-actions where the coverage looked great, the seas parted and there’s just huge running lanes at times.”

Whether jogging on to the practice field or addressing the media, the 43-year-old Canales brings an exceedingly positive energy to all his interactions. Coaches and players who have been with him believe that benefits quarterbacks.

When the Bucs hit a rough stretch last season, losing six of seven heading into December, Canales didn’t waver from his run-first approach. Tampa Bay won five of its last six and knocked off the Eagles in a wild-card game behind Mayfield, a finalist for Comeback Player of the Year.

“He never changed. Positive, upbeat. And I think when the players really started to see that, they’re like, ‘This guy’s the same guy,’” said Joe Gilbert, the Panthers’ offensive line coach who had the same role in Tampa. “As he always says, ‘We’ve got a new set of downs.’ And we turned a corner and we got it goin’.”

“I think that transformed over to the quarterback,” Gilbert added. “I think it’s gonna do the same thing here.”

Canales wants his quarterbacks to have the sense that the next play is going to be a great one. Generating that excitement on Sunday is a process that builds throughout the week.

“As we work together and we go over the game plans and the call sheets, I want to make sure that I don’t call any calls where when I say it to them in their headset, there’s apprehension. There’s some type of bad experience or chemistry with it. I don’t like to start that play off with that in mind,” Canales said. “So it really helps us … knowing when I call this, he gets excited.”

Panthers wideout David Moore has seen the effect Canales’ attitude can have on an organization, having played for him in Seattle and Tampa, as well.

“He brings that positivity in the building and makes you feel like you can do anything. You can win. This can happen,” Moore said. “That’s really all players want from a head coach — somebody they can rely on, depend on. Somebody that’s going to have their back and always be positive instead of negative.”

After spending a season in Tampa Bay as offensive coordinator, Dave Canales is tackling a bigger project as play caller and head coach of the Panthers. (Jim Dedmon / USA Today)

Young’s numbers last year were ugly (59.8 completion percentage, 73.7 passer rating, 5.5 Y/A), even more so when compared to those of Houston Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud, who was drafted one spot behind Young. While Stroud won the Offensive Rookie of the Year and led the Texans to the playoffs, the 5-foot-10 Young finished near the bottom of the league in most passing categories behind a turnstile offensive line and receivers who couldn’t separate from coverage.

Young is not the first No. 1 pick to look overwhelmed as a rookie. Troy Aikman was 0-11 as the Dallas Cowboys’ starter in 1989, while Peyton Manning threw 28 interceptions in 1998, the most by a rookie QB in NFL history. Aikman and Manning are now in the Hall of Fame.

And Eli Manning, the No. 1 pick in 2004, has a chance of joining his brother in Canton after an inauspicious start.

Manning was one of six players from a sample group of 26 quarterback (top-7 picks since 2004 who started seven-plus games as rookies) whose passer rating shot up 20 points or higher their second season. The biggest jumps came from Jared Goff (passer rating increase of 36.9 points), Alex Smith (34.0), Matthew Stafford (30.3), Trevor Lawrence (23.2), Carson Wentz (22.6) and Manning (20.3).

GS: games started; RAT: passer rating

It’s worth noting Young and the 5-foot-10 Kyler Murray, the No. 1 pick of the Arizona Cardinals in 2019, are the only two quarterbacks on this list shorter than 6 feet. Like Young, Murray suffered from poor pass protection as a rookie and was sacked an NFL-high 48 times.

The Cardinals bolstered their offensive line that offseason by signing left tackle D.J. Humphries to a big extension and bringing in former New York Jets right tackle Kelvin Beachum. Murray, whose sack total dropped to 27 in 2020, also benefited from the addition of DeAndre Hopkins. In his first season with the Cardinals in 2020, Hopkins tied a career high with 115 receptions (for 1,407 yards) after arriving via a trade from Houston.

The Panthers took similar steps to boost the talent level around the 23-year-old Young. And after sending four high draft picks — two 1s and two 2s — and top wideout DJ Moore to the Chicago Bears to take Young No. 1, the Panthers need to see evidence this season that Young is the long-term answer.

There are plenty of examples of quarterbacks seeing significant improvement in their second seasons.

Manning said he was much more comfortable entering Year 2 after having an offseason to better learn the New York Giants’ scheme, his offensive teammates and everything else thrown at a NFL quarterback.

“Rookie year, you’re just trying to figure out which way is up and down a little bit,” Manning said. “How do you call the plays and what receivers can do — there’s so much going on where you feel like you’re not even playing football. You’re just trying to do something someone is telling you to do.”

Goff and Lawrence, both No. 1 picks, turned things around playing for new, offensive-minded coaches in their second seasons. Goff lost all seven starts as a rookie in 2016 with the Rams, who fired Jeff Fisher with three games remaining. Goff went 11-4 and passed for nearly 4,000 yards the following year under McVay.

Lawrence threw a league-leading 17 interceptions after going No. 1 overall in 2021 to Jacksonville, which fired Urban Meyer in December following a disastrous, 13-game tenure. After Doug Pederson took over as the Jags’ coach in 2022, Lawrence cut his interceptions in half, won a playoff game and received MVP votes.

Only six of the 26 QBs saw their passer ratings decrease their second seasons, and one of those was Justin Herbert, whose rating dipped by less than one point — from 98.3 as a rookie to 97.7 during a 2021 season that included his first Pro Bowl appearance.

Robert Griffin III, Mayfield and Daniel Jones had more precipitous dips in Year 2.

Former Saints great Drew Brees believes quarterbacks need 50 “high-quality” starts — which can include college and the NFL — to be ready to thrive in the NFL immediately. It’s that threshold, or sit and learn like Brees and many other top passers have done in the past.

In an interview with The Athletic, Brees pointed to Denver Broncos rookie Bo Nix as a QB in an optimal spot after starting 61 games at Auburn and Oregon. Of the six first-round quarterbacks this year, only Nix and the Washington Commanders’ Jayden Daniels already reached Brees’ 50-game benchmark in college.

Young started 27 games at Alabama, then 16 with the Panthers in 2023.

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“So he’s a great example,” Brees said. “He started two years at Alabama, playing the highest level of football, playing for national championships, playing against the best competition with the best players. So he probably had 30 starts in college and he started most of last year. … So to me, he’s ready to springboard.”

Brees said a lot of highly drafted quarterbacks go to teams with other holes to fill, as was the case with Young.

“They didn’t have all the pieces last year,” Brees added. “They’re beginning to develop that through the draft and free agency and other things. So they’ll get there. But yeah, this is his opportunity to make a jump.”

Manning also sees potential for Young to improve.

“He’s athletic, he throws the ball really well, he sees everything. I think he’ll calm down and they’ll try to help protect him a little bit and make sure he’s running plays he’s comfortable with,” the younger Manning said. “It doesn’t always have to be the perfect play, but it’s plays where he knows the progression, he knows his 1-2-3 and he knows the timing of the offense.”

Young has repeatedly brushed aside questions about last season, preferring to focus on the clean slate of 2024, with new offensive coaches and a different surrounding cast. Thielen, one of the holdovers at receiver, believes a person’s biggest growth comes after adversity — and is fired up to see what’s in store for Young.

“When things are good, which they had been in the athletic world for Bryce. They’d always been pretty good. He’d been very successful in high school (and) college,” Thielen said. “I think he’s going to look back at (2023) at some point in his career and say, ‘Man, I’m so glad that happened because I was able to do this because of it.’ I’m excited to see that journey.”

Austin Mock, Larry Holder and Dan Duggan contributed.

(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; photos: Bryan Bennett, Ryan Kang / Getty Images)