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All offseason, I’ve witnessed loyal passengers of the Bryce Young hype train bow their heads and exit. It’s been pretty jarring, quite honestly; these fervent supporters shoved the kid ahead of CJ Stroud on draft night, and are now jumping ship a year later. I’m not going to sit here and pretend like I was studying the 2-15 Panthers super closely each week. So to do my due diligence - and because I’m also a complete nerd - I went back and watched every snap that Young took during his rough rookie season in Carolina. Here were my three main takeaways.

1. Frank Reich was trying to get fired.

Look, claiming that a guy was actively attempting to lose his job is a pretty strong accusation. I’m just telling you what I saw. I will always believe that Reich and his staff wanted to take Stroud with that No. 1 pick before owner David Tepper put his foot down. Josh McCown was literally caught on video making plans to play basketball with CJ once he got to Carolina. I honestly think that at least some small part of Reich was trying to stick it to his boss by making Bryce look lost out there.

Young’s two-minute drill on the road against Texas in 2022 was the best I’ve ever seen at the college level. It encapsulated everything I loved about him at Alabama; he made quick decisions, operated on instincts, and showed zero fear. It was that drive that made me a believer. But then Bryce got to the Panthers, and was forced to play in a scheme that intentionally nullified his strengths. No pre-snap motion, no play action, no designed rollouts. Nothing. The coaching staff wanted Young to try to carve up defenses without the use of his signature creativity or mobility. It’s almost like Reich was running the offense that he had built… for Stroud.

2. Please throw the ball deep.

Brock Purdy had an awesome response the other day, when he was asked about all of the interceptions he was throwing in practice. He basically said that he was using training camp as an opportunity to try stuff. He has to learn if he can fit a ball in to his receiver against certain looks, so he knows whether or not to let it fly during the actual games.

Young should’ve treated last year as one big lab experiment. The team obviously wasn’t ready to compete, so just try to figure some things out. Instead, he dinked and dunked all season. It’s not totally his fault. The offensive line was alarmingly bad, and his best receiver was an aging Adam Thielen; there weren’t a lot of reasonable opportunities to launch one down the field. But I entered the year wondering if Bryce could throw deep, and I left with the same question. That is a failure.

3. He’s tiny.

Okay, this one we already knew. I think the notion that quarterbacks need to be tall is a complete misnomer. But I was so scared every time Young took a shot, that I just feel for Panthers fans. It’s going to be a rather exhausting decade of wincing and hoping the kid gets up after every hit.

Smaller quarterbacks like Russell Wilson and Kyler Murray have gotten so good at avoiding big licks, and Bryce has developed that same talent through the years. But he still needs to be more careful; a shoulder injury sidelined him in 2022, and he dealt with ankle problems last season. I think staying healthy is the biggest obstacle between Young and a successful career.

Bryce is not a freak athlete, and the arm talent isn’t special. For those reasons, it’s very easy for casual fans to throw him in the bust basket when the stats don’t look good. But Young’s magic lies in his intelligence, feel, and resourcefulness, and that stuff can’t be truly understood until you actually watch him work. I really think this is a great NFL quarterback, and I don’t care what the skeptics have to say.

I’d be pretty stunned if Bryce doesn’t take a significant leap this year under the new coaching staff in Carolina; he might not be Stroud, but the Panthers have found their guy.

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