Second-year Carolina Panthers quarterback Bryce Young put up yet another disaster class of a performance in Sunday’s loss to the Los Angeles Chargers. The former No. 1 pick completed 18-of-26 passes for a mere 84 yards with zero touchdowns and an interception.
This came on the heels of Young tossing two picks in Carolina’s blowout loss to the New Orleans Saints in the season opener. The end result Sunday was an ugly 26-3 home loss to Los Angeles.
First-year head coach Dave Canales touched on Young’s status as the Panthers’ starting quarterback after the game. In what can’t be considered too much of a surprise, he’ll be starting again next week against the Las Vegas Raiders.
“Bryce is our quarterback,” Canales said of Bryce Young . “We’re going to continue to shore and fix the things we need to fundamentally, from a scheme standpoint, all those things.”
Young is in his second season. He’s just 23 years old. Carolina handed out the farm to the Chicago Bears to trade up for the Alabama product ahead of the 2023 NFL Draft. The team is going nowhere fast. It makes no sense to install veteran Andy Dalton in as QB1. In short, the Panthers are going to ride and die with Young under center.
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Through 18 career starts, Young has thrown a mere 11 touchdowns to go with 13 interceptions. The Panthers are now also 2-16 in those 18 starts.
What’s so alarming here is the fact that it does not seem like Young has actually improved from his rookie season. The expectation was that he’d take that Year 2 leap. Through two games, we have not seen that.