Insider makes bold Carolina Panthers prediction for Bryce Young's first season

A respected NFL insider made a bold prediction about the Carolina Panthers' chances during their first season with Bryce Young under center in 2023.

Bryce Young is making believers in almost everybody. From the brightest optimist to the biggest critic - they seem to all be coming around to the idea that this is the right guy to lead the Carolina Panthers into a prosperous new era.

Of course, that's arguably the minimum expectation of the No. 1 overall selection in any draft. But considering what the Panthers gave up for the privilege of bringing Young into the fold, anything less than franchise-caliber credentials is not going to cut it for Carolina's long-term plan for sustainable success.

Young has an old head on inexperienced shoulders, so he'll know the magnitude of what's at stake. Fortunately, he's remained grounded with the spotlight glaring, established himself well within the locker room, and is gradually letting his personality shine through from atop the quarterback depth chart.

Carolina Panthers tipped to win NFC South with Bryce Young in 2023

The former Alabama star is drawing rave reviews from players and coaches alike. It's also led ESPN's respected insider Dan Graziano to make a bold prediction about the Panthers' fortunes with Young at the helm in 2023.

In his recent article, Graziano stated via Yahoo Sports that the murmurings coming out of Carolina are similar to what he heard during Joe Burrow's initial transition. He also tipped the Panthers to win the NFC South and completely flip the script entirely.

"It’s hard to know what to expect from rookies, but the stuff I’m hearing out of Carolina about Young reminds me a little of what I heard from the Bengals about Burrow in the 2020 offseason. They expected him to play well right out of the gate, and he did. Every team in the NFC South is playing a soft-looking schedule, so we could see these teams win more games than expected. But I don’t hate Carolina as a division-title pick — I’m drinking the Bryce Young Kool-Aid."

- Dan Graziano via Yahoo Sports

This would be better than expected and might even lead to a period of dominance within the division for Carolina. Tempering expectations initially is the best mindset to adopt considering how first-year quarterbacks tend to struggle more often than not, but there's a chance Young might be the exception to the rule, too.

It's hard to tell one way or the other right now. Young's currently navigating his way through training camp positively, but there's no real live fire being thrown at him - something that'll likely continue up until he takes the field in Week 1 at the Atlanta Falcons.

That said, Young is an NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year frontrunner for a reason. He is poised, accurate, recognizes pressure extremely efficiently, and nobody studies harder - traits that are normally associated with the upper-echelon signal-callers around the NFL.

If immediate success arrives, all the better. It shows Frank Reich's staff have had the desired effect and the personnel acquired throughout a busy offseason managed to get on the same page quickly.

If things don't go quite according to plan, nobody should press the panic button unless something dire occurs. Which, in all likelihood, appears highly unlikely.

Young has the world at his feet. What's important for the Panthers is keeping him humble and out of harm's way as they look to emerge from the doldrums and into contention at long last.