The Carolina Panthers have spent years trying to climb out of the quarterback cellar, and Bryce Young was supposed to be the piece that finally changed the picture. He brought hope, sure. He also made it clear pretty quickly that he couldn’t fix everything by himself.
That’s why the Panthers are no longer showing up on every “worst QB situation” list the way they used to. Young has done enough to move them out of the absolute basement.
Still, one NFL insider isn’t ready to let them off the hook. In The Athletic’s ranking of the league’s worst quarterback rooms, Carolina landed 10th.
The problem, as Saad Yousuf laid it out, is that nobody can say with confidence what Young is yet.
"Young is one of the more frustrating quarterbacks in the NFL. He’ll put forth enough bad performances to show that he’s not the answer the franchise thought he would be when they traded up to draft him No. 1," Yousuf began.
He continued, "However, just when you start cementing that opinion, he’ll have a game or two that pulls you back in. This season should go a long way toward giving the Panthers some clarity on if Young deserves a second contract."
That’s the bind Carolina is in. Young has enough rough outings on the ledger to raise real doubt, but he also keeps flashing the kind of play that makes people pause before writing him off. Every time it feels like the door is closing, he finds a way to reopen it.
Yousuf also pointed to Kenny Pickett as part of the reason the room still lands in this conversation.
"Pickett is a comfortable backup for Carolina, in that he could be serviceable in the short term, but his presence also won’t make Young, who has already gone through an unceremonious benching, nervous about his job."
So where does Carolina go from here? There are basically three paths.
Young can keep building and make another step forward, even if that step is a small one. The Panthers can also go into next offseason and finally surround him with more help, whether that means a legitimate tight end, a great running back, or another strong wide receiver.
Or they can decide the reset button is the only option left and turn to someone else in the NFL Draft.
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Those moves have pushed the ceiling talk higher than it has been in years, with some analysts even floating a top-five finish in 2026 if everything clicks. For a team that has been searching for a true defensive identity, the appeal is obvious, but the real question is whether all that new talent can turn promise into something sturdier once the games start counting. [Read more 🡒]