Bryce Young’s first two games of 2026 have looked nothing like the early chapters of his career.
The Panthers quarterback has opened the season by completing 46 of 73 passes for 648 yards, six touchdowns and one interception. That puts him at 63.0% completions and 8.9 yards per attempt, with the six scores tied for the league lead and the yardage total trailing only Tyler Shough. Across the board, Young is showing up near the top of the league: sixth in passer rating, seventh in ESPN’s QBR, sixth in Pro Football Focus passing grades, seventh in EPA per dropback and seventh in completion percentage over expected.
That’s a dramatic shift from what Young produced over his first three seasons. The numbers told a familiar story then - flashes of talent mixed with too much inconsistency. This year, the early production has been loud enough to force a real question: is this a breakthrough, or just a two-week heater?
After watching all 80 of Young’s dropbacks this season, the answer is leaning toward the former. The film matches the stat sheet. He’s been playing well.
That doesn’t mean everything has been perfect. Young is still only at 63% completions, which is below average, and his off-target throw rate sits at 12.1%, higher than last season’s 9.2%. Some of that is tied to the kind of throws he’s making - he’s working into tight windows at a high rate - and some of it has been helped by his receivers.
Tetairoa McMillan and especially Jalen Coker have made a pile of tough catches, and both have been playing at an exceptionally high level to start the year. They’ve turned Young’s chances into chunk gains and completions that might have gone down as incompletions for someone else. They’ve been one of the league’s best early-season duos.
Still, Young has earned plenty of credit on his own. He’s already leading the NFL in deep-ball completions on throws traveling 20 or more air yards, and his plus-8.0% completion percentage over expected makes that easy to understand.
He’s pushing the ball into tight spaces with conviction. His tight-window throw rate of 17.8% is eighth-highest among 35 qualified quarterbacks at Next Gen Stats, and he’s doing it like a passer who trusts his arm and knows exactly where he wants the ball to go.
He’s also been dangerous when plays break down. Per Pro Football Focus, 66.3% of his dropbacks have lasted at least 2.5 seconds, which puts him seventh in the league in long dropback rate.
On those plays, Young is 24 of 46 for 438 yards, three touchdowns and one interception. The pick came on a poor decision over the middle, where a defender undercut a crossing route after Young had already completed a similar throw earlier in the game.
But most of the longer-play work has been a strength, and it’s the kind of off-script ability that stood out at Alabama.
The catch, of course, is that two games don’t make a season. Young has done this against two defenses that are expected to be among the league’s worst.
Chicago has been hit hard by injuries on the back end, and Atlanta has been his most favorable matchup to date. He has been much better against the Falcons than against the rest of the NFL.
The schedule ahead should offer a better read. Carolina gets the Browns and Lions over the next two weeks, and neither defense looks especially intimidating. If Young’s jump is real, he should keep rolling there.
After the Week 5 bye, the Panthers face the Eagles, then the Buccaneers and Packers. Green Bay’s defense could change if Micah Parsons is back by then, but it has not been imposing so far. If Young has truly turned a corner, those games should still be manageable.
The tougher tests are still coming later in the year. Matchups with the Broncos, Ravens, Vikings, Steelers and Seahawks will tell a much clearer story about whether this is the start of a new level for Young or just an early-season mirage.
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