The Carolina Panthers still have to make a decision with Bryce Young.
The 2023 No. 1 overall pick is in the fourth season of his rookie contract, and he’ll be covered by his fifth-year option next season. After that, his future isn’t yet decided. The Panthers haven’t chosen whether Young deserves a long-term extension or not.
Quarterbacks don’t get paid cheaply these days, so deciding to extend Young would be a choice to give a massive bag to a player who hasn’t always proven to be worthy of such a payday.
At times, Young is a game-winning player, and at other times, Young has been quite rough.
Which Young are the Panthers getting? And what has this season taught us so far?
Well, it turns out the Panthers may have a Tua Tagovailoa-esque player on their hands. It’s hard to even say whether that’s good or bad, because Tua was first really good for the Miami Dolphins before being such a negative that they chose to release him and eat about $100 million in dead cap hit.
So yeah, it’s complicated.
Bryce Young as Tua Tagovailoa
ESPN’s Ben Solak made this fascinating comparison in a new article on Tuesday, and it has to do with some changes that have been made in the Panthers’ offense.
“The Panthers hired Darrell Bevell this offseason as an associate head coach,” Solak writes. “For the past four years, he served as Mike McDaniel’s quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator in Miami. A huge part of the Panthers’ playbook has suddenly become extremely McDaniel-inspired. The Panthers, much like the Dolphins did with Tua Tagovailoa, are weaponizing Young’s lightning-quick release and strong pre-snap processing to hit easy-access RPOs.”
It certainly makes sense for Carolina to find a way to maximize what Young does well.
The key is figuring out whether it’s a sustainable long-term strategy, and Young has at least one extra trait working in his favor.
“The fact that Young is experiencing a production bump while enjoying the same dusting of McDaniel magic dust that once inflated Tagovailoa’s output is … suspicious,” Solak writes. “But Young has something that Tagovailoa never had: the ability to make plays under pressure.”
Solak writes that Young is 11th in the NFL in dropback success rate against pressure from 2024 through 2026.
If he can keep that up, maybe the Panthers can keep moving the ball.
Downside to Bryce Young
Young still hasn’t shown anything that he can do in a consistent enough sample to make Solak sure of what he’s looking at.
“The Panthers are capable of beating the Packers and most other contenders on any given Sunday,” Solak writes, referencing their upcoming Thursday opponent. “But they’re also capable of losing in dramatic fashion to the one-win Buccaneers. And that’s because their quarterback remains a mystery bag even now, 50 starts into his NFL career. I know he’s getting better, but I’m not sure he’s getting better enough fast enough. I know he can make plays under pressure, but I’m not sure he makes enough big ones. I have one job (literally, this is my job), and I still can’t figure out what to do about Bryce Young.”
At the end of the day, it isn’t Solak’s job to actually offer Young a new contract. The Panthers are going to have to figure out themselves what to do with Young, and whether the interesting Tagovailoa comparisons matter to them one way or the other.
Panthers’ Bryce Young Might Be Tua Tagovailoa — Is That Good Or Bad?