Bryce Young’s start to the season is turning heads, and it may be doing more than just helping the Panthers win games. With Carolina sitting at 2-2 heading into the bye week, Young has put himself in position to make a lot of money if this level of play keeps up.
The Panthers’ offense has been rolling through four weeks, and Young has been at the center of it. He enters the bye week leading the league with 1,268 passing yards and ranking third with nine touchdown passes. For a quarterback in year four, with his fifth-year option already picked up in April but no long-term extension in place, that kind of production matters.
He backed up that strong start again in the Week 4 win over Detroit, going 29-for-41 for 329 yards and two touchdowns. That performance helped Carolina protect home field in its first Sunday Night Football game at home in 11 years.
The contract conversation is already starting to follow the play on the field. After the win over the Lions, former NFL player Bryant McFadden said on the CBS postgame show that Young has already earned himself a major payday. McFadden said Young has earned a "MASSIVE" deal and that he's going to "break the bank" with a new contract.
That is a big statement, but it matches the kind of season Young is putting together. This is easily the best stretch of his career, and it comes after a strong 2025 campaign as well. More than anything, it’s the consistency Carolina has been waiting for.
If Young keeps this up, the price tag only goes higher. And for the Panthers, the quarterback decision gets a lot clearer with every strong outing.
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The change has been obvious enough that former NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year Robert Griffin III jumped in publicly and said some of the people who wrote Young off owe him an apology. It is the sort of validation Panthers fans have been waiting for, especially with Dave Canales helping coax better play out of the quarterback. The bigger question now is whether this surge becomes the start of a real long-term answer in Carolina or just a strong stretch in a season full of growing pains. [Read more 🡒]