Panthers training camp breakdown: Young stellar despite constant pressure from defense
After throwing an interception in each of the past five workouts, rookie quarterback Bryce Young put together a stellar seventh practice of training camp — without a pick — on Friday at Wofford College in Spartanburg, S.C.
Young was able to avoid a turnover in team drills, despite constant pressure from the defense. Right tackle Taylor Moton (veteran day off) watched from the sideline as his replacements were consistently one-upped in 11-on-11 drills.
The non-stop pressure started with a Brian Burns would-be sack in the first set of drills and carried over into red-zone work, with a pair of under-the-radar pass rushers nearly getting home in a non-contact practice.
TRAINING CAMP PRACTICE RECAPS: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6
Young shines despite constant pressure
Young looked like a veteran quarterback on Friday, as he made several impressive tight window throws in 11-on-11 and 7-on-7 drills. Looking as poised as he has all camp, Young fit passes where they needed to go with authority as he targeted a plethora of different weapons.
Young has done such a great job of featuring his wide-ranging depth chart of weapons in each practice that Batman’s rogue gallery would be jealous of the attention each pass-catcher has received so far.
The targets have been spread out and plentiful for the likes of Adam Thielen, DJ Chark, Jonathan Mingo, Terrace Marshall, Miles Sanders, Chuba Hubbard, Raheem Blackshear, Laviska Shenault, Hayden Hurst, Ian Thomas and Tommy Tremble this summer.
During 11-on-11 work, Young — who was “sacked” four times during three series — completed 6 of 8 passes (75%). He targeted seven different receivers within those eight passes, and only tight end Ian Thomas was targeted twice. His two misfires were overthrows to Marshall and Tremble.
In 7-on-7 work, Young was also excellent, completing 9 of 10 passes with the only incompletion occurring on an excellent out-of-bounds catch by Marshall, who leaped into the air to catch the rock over cornerback Donte Jackson. The cornerback was able to force Marshall’s leverage to the sideline and the wideout only got one foot in bounds. It was still an impressive throw and catch. Young targeted a different weapon on each of the 10 passes during the phase of drills.
Young’s best play of the day came on a red-zone 11-on-11 rep. After being would-be sacked by rookie linebacker Eku Leota (more on him later), Young made an impressive throw to the left corner of the end zone to Chark, who got a step on cornerback Keith Taylor in the endzone. Chark caught the ball off his back shoulder on the run and somehow stayed in bounds as he reached the tip of the boundary in pay dirt.
The play was significant for a few reasons. It was actually Young’s first touchdown of 11-on-11 period all summer, as the offense hasn’t been asked to push deep shots often in camp to this point. It was also in the same area where Young threw a pick to Taylor on Tuesday.
Young said after that practice that he got the ball out late with bad placement to Thomas when Taylor intercepted him. The throw to Chark, however, had pitch perfect delivery, placement and timing.
As has been written several times this summer, Young doesn’t typically make the same mistake twice. He is also very good at coming back from failed reps. This highlight play was an example of both intangibles.
Young is now 58 of 85 (68.2%) in 11-on-11 drills this summer. He’s broken the practice interception streak and the 11-on-11 touchdown-less skid.
Buckle up, Panthers fans.
Let’s talk about those sacks
During Friday’s session, the argument could be made that the Panthers’ defense produced at least five would-be sacks. Two of those sacks were produced by undrafted rookie Eku Leota, who has thrived this week with Marquis Haynes (back) on the sideline.
After producing three pressures during Fan Fest, Leota took advantage of his extra reps, including a look with the first-team defense on Friday. In 11-on-11 red-zone drills, Leota showed off his burst, blazing past left tackle Ickey Ekwonu, who fell to the ground, for a would-be sack that forced the play to be called dead. Later on, Leota got to Young again from the opposite side with Moton sidelined. In between the two would-be sacks, Leota also got a clear pressure on backup quarterback Andy Dalton after the defender blew up fellow rookie Ricky Lee.
Leota, an Asheville native, is becoming hard to ignore, especially as the Panthers look for pass rushing help with the positional market drying up. No one is going to mistake Leota for Yannick Ngakoue — who signed with the Chicago Bears on Thursday night — but there is clearly something to the Auburn alum.
Like Leota, fellow unheralded pass rusher Kobe Jones is having himself quite the camp. Jones, who has worked with the first-team defense as well, scored a would-be sack right before Leota’s second would-be takedown. Jones has five would-be sacks through seven practices. The preseason could make up the difference between the two up-start pass rushers — Jones and Leota — who are outperforming third-round pick DJ Johnson through nearly two weeks of camp.
As previously mentioned, Burns had a would-be sack early in drills against the first-team offense. He got past Cam Erving, who was filling in for Moton at right tackle. Defensive tackle Antwuan Jackson scored his first would-be sack of camp as well, as he went up the middle to get Dalton’s number during second-team 11-on-11 drills.
Quick hits
▪ Injury update: Rookie cornerback Rejzohn Wright (undisclosed) missed his fourth consecutive practice, though he did work with a trainer on the adjacent practice field for injured players. Haynes, as mentioned before, was sidelined with his back injury as well.
Right guard Austin Corbett (ACL), rookie lineman Chandler Zavala (hamstring) and defensive lineman Jalen Redmond (undisclosed) remain sidelined on the physically unable to perform (PUP) list. All three were present on the adjacent field with Haynes and Wright during the workout.
The team confirmed after practice that Moton was given a maintenance day, or as some in the league would classify: a veteran’s day off.
▪ Running backs Devin Ozigbo and Benny Snell were among a group of players who worked out for the Panthers following practice.
▪ Hubbard and Tremble, who both dropped passes during team drills at Fan Fest, were seen working with the JUGS machine roughly 30 minutes after practice. Hubbard and Tremble both have their respective rough histories with dropped passes in games, so it’s good to see them putting in extra work.
▪ Speaking of drops, wideout Javon Wims and tight end Giovanni Ricci had ugly ones during team drills. Safety Sam Franklin seemingly forced another drop by tight end Stephen Sullivan in 7-on-7 work, as well.
▪ Wideout Shi Smith made an excellent sideline catch off a tight-window throw by Dalton in 11-on-11 work. Franklin nearly slapped the ball out of the air, but Dalton placed it right where it needed to be and Smith hauled it in for a highlight play.
▪ Cornerback Herb Miller, who had the pass deflection that turned into a Young interception at Fan Fest, had another nice pass breakup in 7-on-7 drills. He forced an incompletion on a ball from Dalton to Sullivan. On the next play, Miller had excellent coverage on a completion from Dalton to wideout Gary Jennings.
▪ Defensive end DeShawn Williams did a nice job of forcing pressure from the right side on Young’s first incompletion of day. Williams came barreling in from the right side and Young got the ball out quick but put it too high for Marshall toward the sideline.
More training camp reading at charlotteobserver.com:
▪ He’s a huge Carolina Panthers fan and podcaster. He’s also an inspiration
▪ How Panthers lineman went from loading Amazon trucks to signing with hometown team
▪ ‘I need to be here’: Brian Burns on why he’s at Panthers training camp during contract talks
▪ Panthers’ CJ Henderson discusses Carolina’s decision to pass on his fifth-year option
▪ Exclusive: Hall of Fame GM Bill Polian on pros, cons of rookie Panthers QB Bryce Young
This story was originally published August 4, 2023 at 2:11 PM.
