Monday Morning Optimist: Bryce Young was bad, but he can be better

Let’s all take a deep breath, y’all.

Yes, the Carolina Panthers looked like a worse dumpster fire in yesterday’s season opener than they did in all of 2023’s series of abject failures. Yes, the five hours I spent on Saturday moving two-and-a-half tons of cobble stone up a six foot hill to my back yard was more entertaining than the game on Sunday. Yes, the New Orleans Saints handed the Panthers a 47-10 loss. It all hurt and it doesn’t feel better today.

The start of the game, particularly the first two called passing plays on offense, were about as comically bad as you can get outside of an actual Hollywood script. I think that set the tone for the game, not just for the players but also for how we fans reacted emotionally to the rest of the collapse.

It is easy to say the sky is falling. It is obvious that this team is not where Dave Canales hoped they would by the season opener. But I think the truth of these Panthers lies somewhere in between “the end of days” and “all we need is grit and gumption.”

Much of the discourse, starting in the first quarter, has centered on the lack of playing time for the starters in the preseason. There is merit to that complaint. Bryce Young looked lost in the first half. He held on to the ball too long and was inaccurate with his throws. He also settled in during the second half. He seemed to trust his blocking more and he largely exhibited better decision making and better accuracy as a passer. Blitz recognition and field vision remained a challenge throughout the game.

Young did have a few decent looking drives. That’s a few more than he had in most games last season. He was playing in an offense that displayed some intelligence in the play calling and that featured many open receivers.

“A few drives” sounds patronizing, but it’s not if we give honest credit for the idea that this game was the Panthers’ preseason. That fault lies at Canales’ feet. But he is also responsible for the better looking offensive scheme.

There is a successful offense here for Young to operate if he can. I want to see him get a clean start next week and get his head in the game more quickly.

He gets one game of grace since he had no real preseason. Two duds are going to have (more) fans calling for Andy Dalton. I’m not saying it is likely that we will see dramatic improvement next week, just that we have an outside chance of avoiding crushing disappointment.

For all the consternation and roster churn around the corner position—not to mention the injury to Dane Jackson—the Panthers have had tremendous luck with playing no to low name corners.

Enter Mike Jackson. He had four or five impact plays that could have contributed to stopping drives if anybody else besides Jaycee Horn had shown up on defense yesterday. The defense was always my biggest concern about this team as they went obviously over board in building the team for Young’s evaluation year.

Jackson is limiting those concerns at least insofar as the secondary is concerned.

Jaycee Horn understood the assignment and locked down Chris Olave (I’m not sure if the Shaheed TD to start the game was his fault, looked like it was zone and there was supposed to be safety help). And I liked the rushing offense when the game script was normal for the 30 seconds or so that it was

I was very impressed with Mike Jackson (aside from the one questionable PI call). He was all over the place and playing very physical.

Aside from blitzes from the nickel, the OL seemed more competent while pass-blocking than the 2023 version.

Rookie Xavier Legette leading the team with four receptions in his NFL debut.

I really don’t know. If you were just judging by the box score then you’d think they were picking up right where they left off last season. You’d share that opinion if you watched most of the game, too.

Right now, I’m taking solace in the fact that Young had decent offensive line performance and open receivers to throw to. Shell shock can be treatable. I won’t start burning the curtains or whatever it is you kids do these days. Not today.

There is an obvious path to improvement that runs through Young getting comfortable in his own cleats. Everything else on offense falls more or less into place after that. The defense is going to struggle because of a historic under investment in talent. That’s just the way it is, but even incremental improvement on the offense’s side of the ball will yield a more watchable product.

Next week can show us if we should expect that change, but one week in all we can say is that the opportunity exists. That, at least, is progress from last season.