Bryce Young is entering a pivotal season with the Carolina Panthers.
They have to decide whether they want a future with the quarterback who they chose No. 1 overall just a few seasons ago.
On the one hand, Young has shown talent and was clutch late in games in 2025.
On the other hand, those who made the decision to draft him are no longer around.
Young is under the fourth year of his rookie deal in 2026, then has his fifth-year option intact for 2027. It’s a question for the Panthers of whether they see a future with Young beyond that.
If they do, it likely won’t come cheap.
“What a huge year for Panthers quarterback Bryce Young,” Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer wrote in a new article before Week 1. “The former first pick played well last year … but well enough for the Panthers to pay the going rate for a franchise quarterback? If the answer to that was a resounding yes, they’d have taken care of that by now. The reality for Young is that the GM (Scott Fitterer) and coach (Frank Reich) who drafted him are gone. Other realities: Three years in, he has just 14 career wins; he’s going to have to round out his game, in particular showing better downfield production, to score a big contract; and the team still has him for 2027 on the fifth-year option, which gives them flexibility to delay the decision or even draft his replacement and hold him over as a high-end bridge.”
It’s clear that the decision of whether or not to pay Young will be tricky.
In the interests of figuring out the finances, we asked ChatGPT for help.
AI Explains Bryce Young’s Contract Value
We asked the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT, “What would a Bryce Young contract extension cost?”
It came up with this answer: $160 million over four years.
The AI said that anything more than $40 million per year would start to feel like an overpay for Young, but that under that may not be enough to get a deal done — assuming he plays well this season.
It’s just one way of looking at things, but the chat bot quickly rounded up information from various sources to come up with its answer, and given that the going rate for a QB is that value or higher, it checks out.
Costly Examples
The Panthers know that sometimes the overpay works out poorly, but that it also sometimes works out negatively to let a QB get away.
“Anyway, Carolina is using previous examples of teams giving up too quickly (Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold) or committing too quickly (Tua Tagovailoa) to quarterbacks in slow-playing this,” Breer wrote. “And the resulting pressure that’s on Young should help the Panthers draw a conclusion on which way to go.”
Young helped the Panthers win the NFC South Division in 2025, although with an 8-9 record. If he can lead them to a more convincing division crown this season, that could be enough to earn himself a nine-figure contract extension.
ChatGPT Assesses Bryce Young’s 9-Figure Contract Value