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David Newton, ESPN Staff Writer
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Bryce Young was fed up. Shouting, cursing, spit-coming-out-of-the-mouth fed up.
The Carolina Panthers had just lost 16-13 at the Chicago Bears in a Thursday night game and fallen to 1-8. The rookie quarterback felt the team was playing not to lose rather than playing to win.
So, in the bowels of Soldier Field, the top pick of the 2023 draft had a moment unlike any other during Carolina’s NFL-worst 2-15 season.
His usual stone-faced expression was replaced by fiery-eyed passion, the result of not being able to elevate the play of those around him as he had done his entire career. He showed teammates he wasn’t simply robotic.
“A lot of F-bombs,” running back Miles Sanders recalled. “A lot of F-bombs. He just showed the passion … just showed that he’s human. He’s not just putting on a front and trying to be cool, calm and collected all the time, and [he] let us know this stuff mattered to him.”
Young’s first NFL season will be remembered mostly for his 2-14 record and statistics that ranked him at the bottom of the league and played a role in the firing of head coach Frank Reich after a 1-10 start and general manager Scott Fitterer after the season finale.
But that moment in Chicago showed Young’s leadership and what he can bring to the future of an organization that is searching for its fourth full-time head coach since 2019.
“That was a big turning point in our locker room,” tight end Tommy Tremble said. “We could see how much he loved the game and how much he wanted to win. Seeing that, it made you just want to put in overtime trying to achieve that goal.
“That’s what we’ll take forward from his season.”
YOUNG’S CAREER COULDN’T have started much worse. He threw two interceptions in a Week 1 loss at Atlanta, missed the third game with an ankle injury and was 0-5 before he got his first win on October 29 against No. 2 overall pick C.J. Stroud and the Houston Texans.
At the time, with Stroud on the opposite sideline, it looked like a statement.
But Stroud ended up posting MVP-like numbers and has led the Texans to the divisional round of the playoffs, which fueled critics who said Carolina should have taken the 6-foot-3, 218-pound prototypical NFL quarterback over 5-10, 204-pound Young.
Young, 22, never listened to critics, and he didn’t rejoice in beating Stroud 15-13 on a last-second field goal.
Craig Young was struck by his son’s lack of excitement afterward.
“I was like, ‘We got your first win! Excited?'” the elder Young recalled. “He was like, ‘We’re 1-6. We’re 1-6.’ He didn’t really want a big celebration about it.”
That moment stood out seven games later when Young got his second win on another walk-off field goal.
“He was like, ‘Man, it feels so good to win,'” Craig Young said. “This season’s helped him to the perspective of understanding how difficult wins are in the NFL.”
REICH’S FIRING WAS the low point for Young.
“That was definitely something that was rough,” Young said.
Young liked Reich personally and professionally. He expected this year to be the beginning of a long relationship.
“It was very jarring. It was very hurtful for him,” Craig Young said.
Reich’s dismissal came at a time when there was unrest on the veteran coaching staff he had assembled to develop Young. Quarterbacks coach Josh McCown and running backs coach Duce Staley also were fired after what multiple sources with knowledge of the situation called an environment of tension and disagreement regarding how the offense should look.
There was a faction that wanted to go to a more traditional run-based offense, while Reich wanted to stick with his spread offense that more resembled what Young ran at Alabama.
Tight end Hayden Hurst said there were “too many voices” for Young to succeed. Young disagreed.
He also never complained.
“That’s where I’ve been so impressed with Bryce,” said Parks Frazier, who was promoted to quarterbacks coach to replace McCown. “Through all the adversity and changes and everything that’s gone on, he just stayed the course and found different ways to get better.”
THE TRADEMARK ACCURACY Young had at Alabama, where he threw 80 touchdowns to 12 interceptions, wasn’t there consistently his rookie season. He ranked 31st in the NFL in completion percentage at 59.8%.
Overall, he had one of the worst statistical seasons ever for a quarterback taken at No. 1. His Total QBR (33.3) ranked 29th out of 30 qualified quarterbacks and was third worst among players taken No. 1 since 2007.
Young’s 11 touchdown passes tied for the fewest in NFL history — not just among rookies — for a quarterback with at least 500 attempts.
Having an offensive line unable to protect him was a big reason for his failures. His 62 sacks was the second most for a No. 1 pick in his rookie season, behind David Carr‘s 76 in 2002.
One coach speaking on the condition of anonymity said Young became cautious, particularly on deep throws, after his two picks in the opener.
“It does that to most quarterbacks,” the coach said. “You throw a couple of picks and you’re, ‘OK, I’m going to get a little bit conservative until I get a little bit of mojo back. There just wasn’t enough mojo created to overcome the negative stuff.”
Despite the numbers, Young did improve. Many outside the organization saw it.
“Poise in the pocket, he can throw on a dime, he’s very athletic, he can move in the pocket — not just to run but to throw as well,” Tampa Bay coach Todd Bowles said. “He’s very patient. He’s one of the best scramblers I’ve seen this year.
“He’s going to be one of the best to ever do it once he’s done playing.”
Bucs defensive line coach Kacy Rodgers said Young is “right there” with Stroud and Green Bay’s Jordan Love, two young up-and-coming quarterbacks.
Pocket presence is significant, since Young’s 62 sacks was the most in team history and the second most in the NFL this season behind Washington’s Sam Howell.
“In terms of him going through his progressions, throwing the ball to the right position, you see all that,” Saints defensive coordinator Joe Woods said. “For them, it’s more about building up the roster around him.”
CERTAIN PLAYS REMINDED everyone of what the Panthers saw in Young well before trading two first-round picks and top receiver DJ Moore to Chicago for the right to select him with the top pick last year.
None stood out more than Young’s fourth-quarter, 18-yard completion to DJ Chark Jr. to set up the December win against Atlanta. It had just a 4.7% chance to be completed, making it the second-most improbable completion in the NFL this season.
It reminded us of Young’s trademark skill of putting the ball into tight windows. It also was significant because Young went for a big play instead of a safe throw to Adam Thielen 4 yards from the line of scrimmage.
Young made more throws like that the next week against Green Bay when he had his only 300-yard passing game. He showed glimpses of the player owner David Tepper said on draft night would lead the Panthers to Super Bowls.
“There’s so much more to come,” Chark said. “And three, four, five years from now, he’s going to be definitely at the top, if not one of the top QBs out there.”
Young still has work to do, though.
Just over eight minutes remained in the first half of an Oct. 15 loss to the Miami Dolphins when Young missed Chark for what would have been a 51-yard touchdown and 21-7 lead.
“He was wide open … wide open on a go-ball,” recalled a Panthers coach who asked not to be named. “It was an easy touchdown. We had one where we backed up on the 1- or 2-yard line where we had the perfect call on the throw to Jonathan Mingo deep, and he just missed the throw.
“He’s crazy accurate. He has great anticipation. But he’s got to improve on the deep ball.”
YOUNG’S KNOWLEDGE OF football and the way he processes the game stood out from the beginning. But it wasn’t until after the Chicago loss that everyone saw the raw passion that made them believe he was the real deal.
“It was more so about accountability,” Thielen said.
Said Young, “At the time, I thought it was the time for me to speak. No one likes doing that.”
That moment helped teammates who often stopped by Young’s locker after losses to offer encouragement.
“You could tell it was eating away at him, eating away that he couldn’t do more to help us,” Tremble said. “After the Chicago game, we were, ‘Hey, man, you’re good. We’ll figure this out.’ It kind of was a reality check for all of us.”
Young had never experienced a losing season — at any level — before this year. But he had been on teams that didn’t have the ideal talent around him to be successful before he arrived.
“They say he’s always been on stacked teams,” Craig Young said. “That’s not the case. Until his junior year in high school, he’d always had to elevate and work with less. His formative football years have more mirrored this season. That’s his comfort zone.”
FINDING THE RIGHT coach and general manager to put all the right players around Young will be key moving forward. That’s why most of the coaching candidates on Carolina’s wish list are young offensive coordinators.
The two positives Young can take from this season are that he never fell apart physically due to his size and that he never lost confidence like many quarterbacks have during a nightmarish rookie year.
“There’s no real cathartic moments where he’s broken down and cried, where he’s throwing things and having temper tantrums,” Craig Young said. “He’s not like that.”
The closest Young came to a tantrum was after the Chicago loss. But he downplays that now. He’s focused on breaking down every one of his snaps so he’ll be ready when the next staff is hired.
“I’m definitely confident just because I believe in myself, I believe in this organization,” Young said. “We don’t know 100% what everything is going to look like, but I’m confident in whatever decisions they make.”
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