Panthers DE Brian Burns on Bryce Young: 'Humble but I know I'm the s**t'

Carolina Panthers rookie quarterback Bryce Young has already made quite the impression on his teammates this offseason. The team completed its mandatory minicamp this past week after wrapping up OTAs, and several players came away impressed with how comfortable Young seemed.

That includes defensive end Brian Burns, who said the rookie has exuded confidence, but not to the point that it seems cocky. That has left “quite the stamp” on the Panthers as they hope Young can be a leader for years to come.

“It’s hard not to like that kid,” Burns said according to ESPN. “He’s put quite a stamp on the locker room. He walks around with this kind of — excuse my language — ‘humble but I know I’m the s—‘ type of swag. You know? He’s got it, but he’s humble with it.”

Carolina invested a lot to bring in Young this offseason, trading DJ Moore, two first-round picks and two second-round picks to Chicago for the No. 1 overall pick, where they took the Alabama product. They hope he will be the quarterback of the future after rolling out a different starter in each of the past four season openers.

Young spent the past two seasons as the Crimson Tide’s starting quarterback, becoming the the first QB in program history to win the Heisman in 2021. He ended his college career with 8,356 yards passing and 80 touchdowns to 12 interceptions.

Now having wrapped up OTAs and minicamp, Bryce Young next has a little more than a month off before the rookies report for the Panthers training camp on July 26. He leaves his first experience with OTAs and minicamp feeling closer to his teammates and ready to take on the that next challenge.

“It’s great to be in a locker room where, first and foremost, we hold ourselves accountable,” Young said. “We look in the mirror first. Because of that, us all kind of having that mentality, we can lean on each other to pick each other up.”

Bryce Young explains his ‘quiet confidence’

Young’s poise and calm was on display in college at Alabama, and it seems nothing has changed at the next level. The quarterback explained where that mentality comes from in a recent interview during minicamp.

“I don’t really know how other people necessarily perceive me or what people may think,” Young admitted. “For me, I think confidence is something you earn and I show up every day for I think right now is when as a team, as a group we try to earn that confidence.”

Young detailed the importance of building that trust and establishing confidence as an offense with him under center.

“We earn that trust in one another because you need that for the season,” he said. :So I think that’s something that we’re still building on, I’m building on, I think those are a big part of OTAs, gonna be a big part of training camp to establish that trust, that confidence that we have in one another and that’s a process.