Dave Canales: Bryce Young expects to be best player in NFL
Panthers quarterback Bryce Young gritted out a two-win season, results that would have been anathema to him pre-NFL, back when he was leading Alabama.
New Carolina coach Dave Canales, whose expertise is working with quarterbacks, says that in Young, he sees the same guy from the Crimson Tide. Same attitude, same ability, same aura.
“When I watched him at Alabama for all those years, whether it was one of their early games where they’re running somebody out of a stadium or whether it was a game late in the year, he’s got the same effect in those moments,” Canales told CBS Sports. “He’s the same way when it comes about his work. So I know that there’s going to be a measure of him just feeling certain games out.
“But he’s a guy that has been the best player in high school. The best player in college. So he expects to be the best player again.”
If Young is to be the best again, the Panthers have so much to fix around him. For one, the quarterback was under pressure on just about every play in 2023. Opposing defenses sacked him 62 times, the most of any quarterback last season. Check that, no quarterback has been sacked more over the past decade in the league.
CBS noted that Young and the Panthers were almost always behind. That shouldn’t be a surprise for a team that was 2-15. But here’s a telling detail. Young dropped back to pass 486 times with Carolina behind in a game. Here’s more context for the number. Trevor Lawrence of the Jaguars attempted more passes than Young did when Jacksonville trailed back in 2021. Lawrence, like Young, was a rookie. And like Young, he was the No. 1 player in the draft, a football blue-blood unaccustomed to losing. Lawrence hasn’t completely righted the Jaguars, but he recently signed a $55-million-per-year contract extension.
The Panthers worked to revamp their offense in the off-season. They traded with the Steelers for receiver Diontae Johnson. They then paid big money to add offensive linemen Robert Hunt and Damien Lewis. Back in April, the Panthers traded into the first round to draft South Carolina receiver Xavier Legette, followed by former Texas Longhorn Jonathon Brooks, the top running back on the board.
These days, the Panthers also are seeing a slightly different Young than the one who led Alabama. He’s loosened up, at least a little bit.
“That’s something that I’ve thought about and wrestled with a lot,” Young said. “And I’ve tried just to suppress everything and stay flatline, and it was really hard. It didn’t really work. And nowadays I kind of allow myself to have temporary (moments) of I’m too negative or I’ll say something that I’ll be super silly. And I allow myself to do that as long as I can reel myself back in. It kind of makes it easier to stabilize versus just trying to be more flatline.”