Dan Orlovsky: Carolina Panthers are 'shocked' by Bryce Young's mental strength

Now that NFL OTAs and mini-camp are in the books teams have a much better idea where their newest draft picks are and how much work they still need to do to get up to speed. Carolina Panthers quarterback Bryce Young‘s mental strength took the organization by surprise.

The former Alabama star was well thought of by the Panthers prior to his arrival. After all, there’s a reason they took him with the No. 1 overall draft pick.

But just how advanced Young is came as a bit of a surprise.

“They are shocked how impressive Bryce Young is mentally,” former NFL quarterback and current ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky said on the Pat McAfee Show.

Bryce Young’s mental strength was one of the reasons he was such a strong playmaker with the Crimson Tide. His ability to react to things on the fly and make sound adjustments were notable.

It’s one of the reasons he was so lethal on third down.

Now the Carolina Panthers are enjoying the young gunslinger’s ability, optimistic about what it could mean for the future of the franchise.

“I remember going back to probably like April and having conversations and just like text message conversations and kind of the phrase that kept getting shared with me about Bryce was ‘elite processor,'” Orlovsky said. “Elite processor. Elite processor. Mentally so much more advanced than everybody else. And I think even they are surprised with how mentally advanced he is, both like football playbook-wise, football feel-wise, situational kind of understanding.”

The Panthers are coming off a 7-10 season and haven’t had a winning year since 2017, the last time the organization made the playoffs. The goal is to change that.

And given Bryce Young’s mental strength, Carolina might have a lot more it can do offensively this season.

“I think the big takeaway that they have right now, Pat, is they don’t feel that there is a single part of his game that holds them back from unloading their whole playbook,” Orlovsky said. “And that’s so rare for a rookie quarterback.

“You know how it is, sometimes you give him 20% or ‘Hey, we’re going to pare down our gameplan for the young kid.’ There’s not a single thing, it’s actually the opposite, they honestly think that because he’s so good mentally they can expand their playbook to what it has been. And that’s kind of taken them by surprise.”