Panthers News: Bryce Young, Matt Corral, Ikem Ekwonu and Marquan McCall

Carolina Panthers QB Bryce Young's status

Considering the lack of production from the Carolina Panthers offensive line throughout preseason so far, one could forgive Frank Reich and his staff for shutting down quarterback Bryce Young until Week 1 at the Atlanta Falcons arrives. While there is a need to get reps into the rookie, he's accumulated enough in the way of football experience to suggest no harm would come from sitting out this weekend.

Although the scenario seems logical, it doesn't seem like something Reich is going to move forward with based on his comments via Augusta Stone from the team's website. The head coach said his prized possession will play, but how much remains unclear at this juncture.

"Sometimes a lot of teams won't play their starters in the last preseason game. We're going to play Bryce and play our offensive starters. (We) still want to get more reps; I think we had about 20 last week or something like that. It's kind of TBD again. It could be about the same, could be a little less, could be a little bit more. (We would) like to get a little rhythm going, accomplish certain things. So we'll play it by ear."

- Frank Reich via Panthers.com

Young's shown enough in a relatively small sample size to suggest he's the real deal. The former Alabama star is only going to get better when the offensive scheme concepts open up significantly, so why the Panthers are planning to put him in harm's way is anyone's guess.

That said, this coaching staff knows what it's doing. So there should be a high level of trust in their decision-making process.