Panthers LT Ickey Ekwonu on Bryce Young getting hit: 'We just weren't good enough'

In a preseason game against the New York Jets, first overall pick Bryce Young saw the field for his first NFL action. It was an exciting moment for the entire Carolina Panthers organization, but offensive lineman Ickey Ekwonu was still disappointed at the end of it.

He wasn’t disappointed by Young, though. He was frustrated by the offensive line’s performance in the game and how much they allowed Young to get hit.

“Just disappointed. Not what we’re looking for at all,” Ekwonu said. “He shouldn’t be getting hit at all. That’s on us. We just weren’t good enough today. We’ve got to just attack it. A lot of things on tape we’ve got to fix. So that’s the goal going into next week.”

In three series, Bryce Young was 4-of-8 for 21 yards. In his final snap of the game, Young went down, having been sacked by Quinton Jefferson. Matt Corral, who replaced Young, suffered a similar fate as the Carolina offensive line couldn’t handle New York’s pass rush. In the end, Corral was sacked four times.

All of this led to Ekwonu, offensive line coach James Campen, and the rest of the team’s offensive line meeting after the game to talk about what needed to change.

In all fairness to Carolina, New York had one of the NFL’s best defenses last season. That’s not expected to change in 2023, either. So, handling their pass rush isn’t the easiest task. At the same time, it would have been nice to give Bryce Young more time to throw and help the rookie build his confidence.

In the end, the Jets beat the Panthers 27-0. It’s just one preseason game, but it’s hard to not see it as a frustrating start for Carolina.

Ickey Ekwonu raved about Bryce Young

Despite the amount of pressure that got to Bryce Young, his football IQ is still there and as Ickey Ekwonu explained, this makes his job easier.

“It’s made it a lot easier. His pocket presence is second-to-none. The fact that he can sense where the pressure is coming from, sense that he needs to drop back or step up in the pocket, it really helps out the offense a lot,” Ekwonu said.

“I think it’s my confidence overall. It’s definitely gone up since last year. It’s a credit to working across the line with some of those guys like [Brian] Burns, Yetur [Gross-Matos], Marquis Haynes. It’s definitely helped me a lot along the way.”