Bryce Young has come out hot to start the 2026 season, but Week 3 could be a very different kind of test for the Carolina Panthers quarterback.
The first two games have shown plenty of promise, though the bigger picture still isn’t clear. Two weeks is a tiny slice of a season, and Young’s third outing may say a lot more about where he and the Panthers offense are actually headed.
The matchup gets tricky fast because Cleveland has leaned hard on man coverage. According to Vic Tafur at The Athletic, the Browns have used man on 43 percent of their dropbacks, the second-highest rate in the NFL so far. That matters because Young has been picking apart zone looks this season.
Tafur wrote:
The Panthers have opened things up for Bryce Young, and he has feasted against zone coverage. Unfortunately, the Browns have run man coverage at the second-highest rate of any defense in the NFL (43 percent of dropbacks).
Cleveland also has the kind of personnel that makes that approach work. Denzel Ward leads a secondary that can make life miserable for opposing receivers, and Ward is one of the best shut-down cornerbacks in the game.
The Browns’ pass rush won’t be quite the same without future Hall of Famer Myles Garrett, but they still bring real pressure off the edge. Jared Verse is no slouch, and Carolina should be bracing for a battle both at the line of scrimmage and downfield.
That could open the door for the Panthers to lean more on the run game, and this might be a smart spot for offensive coordinator Brad Idzik to loosen the reins on Chuba Hubbard. Hubbard’s raw totals haven’t jumped off the page, but he has been efficient, explosive and dependable.
His 59.1-percent success rate backs that up. And Cleveland has been vulnerable on the ground, sitting 26th against the run and allowing 131.5 rushing yards per game.
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