‘Harsh reality’: Panthers QB Bryce Young just saw his head coach get fired. Now what?
Panthers rookie quarterback Bryce Young knows he is partly responsible for head coach Frank Reich getting fired after one of the shortest tenures in NFL history.
What if Carolina was 5-6 instead of an NFL-worst 1-10 right now? What if Young had 20 touchdown passes through his first 10 pro starts instead of just nine? What if the Panthers were losing games 30-27 instead of 17-10?
In all those cases, I think Reich, quarterback coach Josh McCown and running backs coach Duce Staley — all fired Monday — would still be employed.
Young understands that he had a role in Carolina’s Black Monday.
“We all do,” he said Wednesday when I asked him if he felt a specific share of responsibility for Reich and McCown getting fired. “We all share in that. We all talk. You never want to see people lose their jobs. You never want to see people fired. We wanted to come in and conquer things together and accomplish our goals together. We all take responsibility in that not being the case.”
Certainly, it’s not all Young’s fault. It’s not even half Young’s fault. The Panthers set Young up to fail rather than succeed this season by not adequately replacing their two best skill players — Christian McCaffrey and DJ Moore — after trading them away over the past 13 months.
Their free-agency acquisitions and 2023 draft picks other than Young have been, mostly, duds. The offensive line has been mediocre at best and horrid at worst, as Young has already been sacked 40 times in just 10 starts (the second-most sacks for a QB in the NFL, behind only Washington’s Sam Howell 55).
Has Bryce Young regressed?
Cam Newton, by contrast, was sacked fewer than 40 times in seven of the eight years he started regularly for Carolina. And Young still has six games to go! Yes, it was a little harder to sack Newton, who outweighed Young by at least 40 pounds. But Newton also played with what was a far better offensive line.
But some of this does fall on Young, who has thrown three pick-6 interceptions and also had a fumble returned for a touchdown while leading an offense that has scored 15 or fewer points for five games in a row. The rookie has looked tentative many times. He often bails out of the pocket too quickly. He has made a number of regrettable on-field decisions.
Has Young regressed, as some theorize? I wouldn’t say so. I would say he doesn’t seem to have improved, and that was one of the biggest problems with the team under Reich.
Carolina scored 10 points in its first game and 10 points again in its 11th game. Owner David Tepper had seen enough after that last performance and fired Reich while tabbing special teams coordinator Chris Tabor to lead the team on an interim basis. Tabor then quickly fired McCown and Staley, two coaches with strong ties to Reich.
Tabor’s expectations of Young
When asked this week what he wants Young to do Sunday at Tampa Bay (4:05 p.m kickoff), Tabor said: “I think he has to be himself. My message to everybody is, ‘Let’s go out and play and have some fun. Play loose. Not reckless, but play loose. Here’s my chips. I’m all in. So let’s go.’ I think that can be comforting to players. And he (Young) is going to play well. I just know he will.”
Reich, of course, said similar things all year and still believes Young will be a fine NFL QB one day. Tepper does, too. I actually do, too, if the Panthers can get him enough help before they get him hurt.
Every week Young makes a few plays that make him look like a guy you would pick No. 1 overall. But there aren’t enough of those plays. Young struggles more than you’d expect with reads and coverages and the way defenses disguise things. And the Panthers often get out of the huddle so late that they flirt with delay-of-game penalties.
“Bryce has a lot going on,” Panthers wide receiver DJ Chark said.
He does. It makes you appreciate veteran quarterbacks who can play the symphony that the position requires by feel or memory. Young is still reading the sheet music out there, and it’s painfully obvious at times.
But benching the rookie at this point? I wouldn’t do it. The season is lost. Let him work his problems out on the field. One of these days, he will throw for 250 yards (he hasn’t yet, while No. 2 overall pick C.J. Stroud has six games of 300-plus yards in Houston). One of these days, he will win another game. One of these days, the Panthers will find him some better linemen and some better guys to catch the ball.
None of that happened fast enough, and thus Reich is gone.
Reich told me in our exclusive interview the day he got fired that while he wished he had more time, he understood.
“The NFL is a meritocracy,” Reich said. “It’s not unconditional love. I understand from a professional standpoint Mr. Tepper is going to have certain standards that he expects to have met. I have no hard feelings.”
Reich’s firing to Young: ‘Really hard’
To Young, though, all of this is tough. He’s never had a losing season before at any level. And Reich and McCown — both hired in large part to ease his transition into the league — have now gotten fired in part because that transition has been bumpy.
“It’s really hard,” Young said. “These are real relationships. These are people’s lives. ...You’re spending almost double digit hours a day (together) ... Obviously you build a strong bond and strong relationship over that time. ... It’s a really harsh reality.”
Young stopped short of saying he wished the three coaches could have stayed, carefully saying he’s just a player and that’s not his decision. But he hasn’t seen this sort of thing much yet, at least not compared to veteran players who have witnessed the NFL eat its own for years.
“You’ve gotta perform,” center Bradley Bozeman said, describing the NFL mentality. “If you don’t perform, you get released.”
That even happens to Heisman Trophy winners and No. 1 overall draft picks, although they get a lot more tries than an undrafted rookie. Still, Young has had a frustrating first season by every standard, and it’s having repercussions.
“These are tough and trying times,” Young said.
They are.
But the only way out for the Panthers is to go through it, and specifically for Young to go through what’s happening now and make a substantial leap from Year 1 to Year 2 and then another leap after that. He’s a bottom-5 NFL starting QB right now. But he’s got the potential to be a top-10 one, in a few years. If he gets there, the next coach is going to have a lot of fun.
But if Young doesn’t, he and his teammates are simply going to get another coach fired.
This story was originally published November 30, 2023 at 5:30 AM.
