Bryce Young’s sophomore season with the Carolina Panthers began with an absolute disaster when he threw an interception on his first drop back of Week 1. It didn’t get any better from there. The New Orleans Saints blasted the Panthers, 47-10, in the season opener on Sunday. The Saints are not exactly expected to be a powerhouse this year, but they made the Panthers looked like an overmatched tiny college team while the No. 1 overall pick from the 2023 NFL Draft struggled again.
Young didn’t give Panthers fans much to hang their hopes on. He finished the day 13-of-30 for 161 yards, two interceptions and zero touchdowns. Young is far from the only problem in Carolina — the Panthers can’t run the ball on offense, can’t pressure the QB on defense, and their wide receivers struggle to get separation. Still, Young has been decidedly underwhelming after Carolina sent a huge package to the Chicago Bears to trade up for him in the draft, and the returns just haven’t been good enough so far.
For as bad as the two interceptions were, the most embarrassing moment of his day happend when he was tackled by his own offensive lineman:
It isn’t every day you see a QB wrapped up and tackled by their own teammate, but it happened here. It looked like Panthers’ tackle Taylor Moton was trying to keep Young from falling, but when you’re barely 200 pounds soaking wet like Young is, it doesn’t take much to knock you over.
Young had a terrible rookie season, and didn’t show any improvement in his first game of Year 2. In fairness, a lot of QBs struggled around the NFL in Week 1 whether it was because of early season rust or defenses taking away deep shots with their coverages. Can Young still salvage his NFL career and turn into an above average starting quarterback? Of course he can. But at the moment, he looks like one of the worst QBs in the NFL while stuck on arguably its most hopeless team.
Young is on his way to bust status if he doesn’t turn it around soon. It won’t be easy when the rest of the Panthers are this bad.
