Quarterback Bryce Young scored 20 touchdowns in the season’s final 10 games after he was benched early in the year.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. β Quarterback Bryce Young and the Carolina Panthers are starting 2025 with good momentum.
The Panthers closed the regular season with a 44-38 overtime win over the Atlanta Falcons. The victory gave the Panthers a third-place in the NFC South and floundered the Falcons to their seventh-straight losing season. The game’s biggest impact, though, is the feel-good finish for the Panthers’ locker room.
“We were able to finish as a team and I was really proud of that,” Canales said after Sunday’s win.Β
The Panthers finished with a disappointing 5-12 record that did improve on 2023’s 2-15 record, but the team missed the playoffs for the seventh straight year. There was a lot of improvement for the team across the season, most notably from the signal caller.
Young was benched after the season’s first two games. The Panthers were outscored 73-13 as Young threw zero touchdowns and three interceptions. This followed his lackluster rookie season filled with losses, sacks, and a lack of confidence.
Things changed after he spent five weeks backing up Andy Dalton. The Panthers went 1-4 during that span and another season was all but lost. Pundits wrote off Young, the No. 1 pick in the 2023 draft, as a bust and wondered if he would find luck elsewhere.
But Young was still on the Panthers and waiting for his chance to return to the starting role.Β
Dalton suffered a thumb injury in a Charlotte car crash, pushing Young back at the helm in Week 8 against Denver. The Panthers lost 28-14 but Young threw two touchdown passes and looked more comfortable. Young led the Panthers on a 98-yard touchdown drive to close the game which was a sign of his clutch abilities.Β
Young’s late-game heroics shined in seven of the next nine games. He led game-winning drives against the Saints, Giants, Cardinals, and Falcons. Young put the Panthers in position to beat the Chiefs, Eagles, and Buccaneers but various circumstances led to Carolina losses.
The Panthers saw the makings of a franchise quarterback in those seven games. Young avoided sacks, made plays with his arm and legs, converted fourth downs, and showed a lot of poise under center.
“I’m so proud of the way that he just took the challenge,” Canales said. “He grew every week. He took new lessons, and new things, applied it to his game.”
One of Young’s coolest moments of the season happened on Sunday during a touchdown pass to tight end Tommy Tremble that featured a no-look celebration before the ball hit his receiver.
“It was definitely not planned, just confidence in Tommy,” Young said after the game. “When I threw it I knew he was gonna catch it.”
Those kinds of grace under pressure moments are what the Panthers were hoping from their No. 1 pick when they chose him a year ago.Β
Young finished the year with 2,403 yards passing, 15 touchdown passes, nine interceptions, and a 60.9% completion rate. He also had six rushing touchdowns. Twenty of his 21 touchdowns were scored in the season’s closing 10 games.Β
Those numbers don’t look glorious on the stat sheet but Young’s production was seen most with how he led the team in the late stretch of the season.
“This year has definitely been something that I’ve never had before, but God doesn’t make mistakes. I’m grateful for the path he had me on,” Young said. “It’s super encouraging. In the offseason [I’m] still gonna look at stuff to improve on.”
Young acknowledged that the team needs to improve to get consistent results that put the team into the postseason.
“As a team, we’re not where we wanna be right now,” Young said. “It was a great day [to beat the Falcons] and it proves what we can do, but we have to be consistent, we have to keep going.”
The Panthers have around 249 days until their next regular season game. If Young keeps his progress going and Carolina adds key pieces to the roster, the team could be in for a turnaround year.
