An afternoon to forget for Bryce Young
This was an afternoon to forget for Bryce Young and the Carolina Panthers. You'd never have guessed this was a team who were coming into the game on the back of a shutout win in which they scored 30 points. This looked more like the team that had to give up the No. 1 overall selection in the 2024 NFL Draft to the Chicago Bears.
Young couldn't build a legitimate momentum. The first drive was his best by a considerable margin, and it declined rapidly after that. The margin for error is razor-thin, and some fans are growing increasingly concerned about the signal-caller's inability to string together positive performances.
Dave Canales eventually took Young out of the firing line with the game out of sight. The Mater Dei High School graduate looked dejected and frustrated in equal measure. This isn't what he or the Panthers envisaged after such a morale-boosting victory. It's back to square one, and another season seems to be unraveling quickly.
There is still time to turn things around, but it has to happen quickly. Young is under enormous pressure — something that performances like this will not alleviate.
More questions than answers around Bryce Young
Everyone in the locker room still believes in Bryce Young. The Panthers' fan base is somewhat divided, but there remain far more questions than answers regarding his long-term prospects.
The time for half measures is over. Young needs to show the resolve that galvanized his career over the second half of 2024. He's missing some talent around him, but that's no excuse. If he wants to become a genuine franchise-caliber presence, he needs to take games by the scruff of the neck. Nothing else will do.
Otherwise, he's just going to be a middle-of-the-pack or worse quarterback throughout his career. The New England Patriots knew precisely how to nullify this threat. They took charge and never let up. They broke Young, and Canales was out of ideas pretty early on.
This is a bad look, especially when momentum was building. Young needs to shake it off quickly, work hard to adjust in the coming days, and get himself ready to face the Miami Dolphins. Looking at the current state of their secondary, this appears to be an excellent opportunity to bounce back.
Easier said than done, but Young has done it before. He's more than capable of doing it again.