Bryce Young, Panthers’ offense encounter first real ‘tough’ training camp outing
Toward the end of a long day for the Carolina Panthers’ offense on Saturday — one of dropped passes and dead-ball penalties and just generally being a bit “off” — Bryce Young revealed a rare frustration.
Rare for him, that is.
The early impression of Young during his first NFL training camp has been one of poise. Of unshakeableness. It’s been this way so much that any time he chucks the ball into the ground after a run, or yells at himself under his helmet, it’s news. The 5-foot-10, 205-pound rookie quarterback did something of that variety again Saturday at the end of a two-minute drill that ended with a coverage sack.
For the first time, Young finished with a less than 60% completion percentage in 11-on-11 competition, going 7-of-15 with a touchdown and zero interceptions. He threw plenty of dots — including one to Adam Thielen for a score early on — but those plays were overshadowed by a Chuba Hubbard red zone drop here, a Jonathan Mingo red zone drop there, a Young-receiver miscommunication elsewhere.
How did he respond?
Predictably.
“You want to win the drill, you want to compete, and obviously the defense won that drill,” Young told reporters after practice in Spartanburg, S.C. “The defense won the day. As a competitor, we all get like that. But you know, we have to do a better job of reeling stuff back in, saying, ‘Even if it’s not our day for one day, one period, one play, we’re able to flip the script.’
“We didn’t do a good enough job of that today, but that’s what training camp is for.”
Young went on to say that “it’s nothing new having tough days.”
“At no level has there been days where it’s not back and forth, not up and down,” he said. “I don’t think there’s any level, any sport, where anyone would say that. There’s always good and bad days. ... I go out and I want to make every throw, I want to make every protection call, make every read, and it’s not going to happen, but we will strive for that.”
Panthers head coach Frank Reich agreed with his rookie quarterback.
“Here’s another thing to keep in mind: We’re in Install 6, so we’re calling our red zone install plays that we’re not game planning against a certain coverage,” Reich said. “So we might not even have these plays in, normally, against the coverages that we’re seeing. But we gotta let them run. And we gotta find completions.
“That’s not a good excuse for not having a good day at all, but those things all factor in.”
Young spread the wealth again on Saturday to a bunch of different receivers and watched as Terrace Marshall had another great day of camp. That’s par for the course thus far; on Friday, during one session of 7 on 7 drills, Young targeted a different receiver on 10 straight throws.
When asked about it, Young called it a function of the Reich offense. When asked if he had any favorite targets emerging during training camp, he fell back on a “team-team-team” mantra, but even to the not-so-critical eye, you can see he’s building a good relationship with the tight ends, particularly five-year NFL veteran Hayden Hurst — who compared Young to Joe Burrow earlier this training camp.
Defensive leaders were quick to praise Young — and that’s even on a day when the defense prevailed.
“Us as a defense, we see him,” said Keith Taylor Jr., a defensive back who’s had a solid camp so far. “We know that’s the guy. Like, he’s been throwing some dots. I’m not gonna lie to y’all. He’s really been putting it on some receivers.
“Anytime we try to talk mess to him — obviously we’re going to give him some — at the end of the day, that’s our teammate. So we like where we’re at.”
This story was originally published August 5, 2023 at 4:53 PM.
