Through three weeks, the NFL passing race has taken a turn nobody saw coming. The only quarterbacks to clear 900 passing yards are Carolina’s Bryce Young and New Orleans’ Tyler Shough - not the usual names you’d expect to see sitting atop the leaderboard.
Young is the one setting the pace. He went into Week 3 tied for the league lead in passing touchdowns with six and already near the top in yards, then added 291 yards and a touchdown in Carolina’s 21-18 loss to the Cleveland Browns. That pushed him to 939 passing yards, good for the NFL lead so far.
The game also brought a scare. Young suffered a lower-body injury, though the exact nature of it has not been disclosed. After the loss, he said the injury did not affect the outcome.
Carolina is now 1-2 and turns its attention to Week 4 against the Detroit Lions.
Shough has been making his own noise, even with New Orleans at 1-2. The Saints fell 35-27 to the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 3, but Shough turned in one of his best outings yet, throwing for 255 yards and four touchdowns. That performance lifted him to 917 passing yards on the season.
The Saints will be back home in Week 4 to face the Atlanta Falcons.
Just behind those two sits Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford with 872 passing yards. Jordan Love, Patrick Mahomes and Jared Goff are also over 800 through three games.
It’s still early, and the leaderboard can change fast. For now, though, Young and Shough are the quarterbacks everyone else is chasing.
In Other News...
Panthers Get A Crucial Defensive Lift At The Right Time
The Panthers are getting a much-needed boost on defense as they head toward a Week 4 matchup with the Lions. After losing Jaycee Horn and Mike Jackson to injured reserve and watching their secondary take another hit, Carolina is looking for stability wherever it can find it, and Devin Lloyds return from the issue that kept him out against Cleveland arrives at the right moment. He has still managed to lead the team in tackles despite missing a game, which says plenty about how quickly he has become part of the front sevens rhythm.
Lloyd said he is feeling good and ready to play, a welcome development for a defense that has had to absorb too many setbacks already. The timing matters even more with Detroit coming up next, because Carolina needs players who can help steady the middle of the field while the back end sorts itself out. For a unit trying to keep from being stretched thinner, getting Lloyd back could be one of the more important developments of the week. [Read more 🡒]
Panthers Loss Exposed A Bigger Problem With Dave Canales Offense
Dave Canales left points on the field against the Browns, and the two failed fourth-down tries became a snapshot of a larger issue with the Panthers offense. In a one-score game, those calls mattered, but the bigger concern is how little confidence Carolina seems to have built in its short-yardage package. Bryce Young is not the kind of quarterback who naturally lends himself to sneak situations, which makes those spots especially revealing when the offense gets stuck there.
Carolinas staff now has to show it has more than a hope-and-see answer when the chains get tight. The article points to alternatives that could help, including using Kenny Pickett in those situations and finding ways to lean on Mitchell Evans as part of a more functional short-yardage plan. Until the Panthers have something sturdier in that part of the game, every fourth-and-short decision is going to feel bigger than the down and distance in front of it. [Read more 🡒]
Panthers Secondary Just Took A Hit Carolina Cant Easily Absorb
The Panthers secondary took a major blow with starting cornerbacks Jaycee Horn and Michael Jackson both landing on injured reserve, a setback that forces Carolina to reshuffle one of its most vulnerable spots on the roster. Horn, one of the teams top defensive pieces, is sidelined by a quad injury, while Jackson is dealing with a groin injury, leaving the Panthers to patch together depth at corner at a time when stability on the back end matters plenty.
In the moves that followed, Carolina promoted wide receiver David Moore and running back Anthony Tyus to the active roster and added cornerback Robert Rochell to the practice squad. The personnel shuffle underscores how thin the Panthers are on the perimeter right now, and it leaves the team searching for answers while it waits to see how long it will have to manage without two of its top defensive backs. [Read more 🡒]