Panthers News: Frank Reich, Bryce Young, Bradley Bozeman and personnel
By Dean Jones
Carolina Panthers OL Bradley Bozeman's position
The offensive line is not doing enough to help quarterback Bryce Young right now. Their lack of consistent production and some not being suited to the scheme are leading to significant complications - especially in pass protection.
The aforementioned moves made on Tuesday indicate a level of unhappiness within the building, too. There are a lot of square pegs in round holes, with the new concepts implemented by Frank Reich and Thomas Brown not playing to Bradley Bozeman's strengths as a prime example.
When discussing the prospect of switching Bozeman from center to one of the guard positions, Carolina Panthers staff writer Darin Gantt acknowledged that it's not been a perfect fit up to now. However, he thought such a big change would upset the apple cart rather than help at this relatively late stage.
"[Bradley] Bozeman's played guard before in Baltimore, so it's something he could certainly do. Usually, centers come in two distinct sizes. The smaller, more athletic ones (think Ryan Kalil) or massive road graders. Bozeman is absolutely the latter, and they've asked him to do some former things this year. It's not that he's bad at it, it's just not as perfect a fit for his skill-set. But if you do that, it creates a question of who plays center. I could see it being the thing they consider in case of an injury, but it feels a little disruptive to multiple spots to uncork in the middle of the year. Ask me again during OTAs next spring."
- Darin Gantt, Panthers.com
The NFL is so fast-moving, that any alteration such as this normally occurs in the offseason. Young and Bozeman have spent months honing chemistry, so asking someone else to immediately step into the breach is unfair.