Carolina Panthers commit to Bryce Young, but plenty other decisions still loom
.JPG "Carolina Panthers team owner David Tepper, left and quarterback Bryce Young, right, greet one another prior to the team’s game against the Los Angeles Rams at Bank of America Stadium on Saturday, January 10, 2026. The Rams defeated the Panthers 34-31.")
The Carolina Panthers have made a commitment to Bryce Young.
It’s an important commitment, too — even if it didn’t catch many by surprise.
Panthers general manager Dan Morgan told reporters on Tuesday that the team will pick up Young’s fifth-year option. This will keep the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 draft in Carolina through 2027 — a decision that, if unchanged, will see Young play out the rest of his rookie contract in 2026 and then receive $26.5 million in 2027, according to Over The Cap’s fifth-year option projection for quarterbacks.
Morgan volunteered the information as if it wasn’t all that stunning Tuesday — and that’s because it wasn’t. Picking up the fifth-year options for quarterbacks is generally accepted to be fiscally prudent. Case in point: Of the eight quarterbacks picked No. 1 since 2011, all have had their fifth-year options exercised.
Morgan said Young earned it by the way he played down the stretch.
“I think Bryce has shown flashes of greatness this year against high-level competition,” Morgan said. “I think just as a team we just weren’t as consistent as we wanted to be on a game-to-game basis. But I think that’s part of what happens when you have a young team — a young team that’s building continuity and kind of figuring themselves out. I think Bryce did a great job this year, and just really excited about him moving forward.”
Young made the 2025 season his best yet. He finished with career highs in wins (8), completion percentage (63.6), passing yards (3,011), passing touchdowns (23) and passer rating (87.8). Along the way he picked up the single-game franchise record in passing yards against the Falcons, added six game-winning drives and led the Panthers to their first playoff game since 2017 and their first NFC South championship since 2015.
He regularly played his best when the lights were the brightest. None was more obvious than this past weekend, against the Los Angeles Rams, when Young went blow-for-blow with MVP candidate Matthew Stafford and fell one drive short of completing a marvelous comeback. In the game, Young finished 21 of 40 for 264 yards and one touchdown. He also threw an interception and scored a 16-yard rushing TD.
The Panthers could also spend this time negotiating Young’s future in a more long-term sense — perhaps a contract extension. Morgan said that was one of many options still on the table.
“I think that’s something that (executive vice president of football operations Brandt Tilis) and I are still talking about,” Morgan said. “We’re still talking through the roster and where things look from the big-picture view. So yeah, that’s stuff that is still up in the air, that we’re still working through at this point.”
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The decision the Panthers made on Young’s short-term future — as well as the many that still need to be made about his long-term future — weren’t the only ones discussed on Tuesday during Morgan’s end-of-season media availability. Here’s a quick rundown of what else was addressed.
Injury to Ickey Ekwonu makes offensive tackle a more pressing need
On Sunday, head coach Dave Canales announced that starting left tackle Ickey Ekwonu sustained a ruptured patellar tendon in his right knee, the kind of injury that regularly takes six to 12 months to rehabilitate from.
On Tuesday, Morgan said Ekwonu had yet to have surgery, which isn’t all that uncommon with knee injuries due to complications with swelling and other factors. He also answered to how Ekwonu’s injury will impact how the Panthers’ front office approaches the offseason.
“Timeline-wise, I really don’t have anything for you guys,” Morgan said of Ekwonu. “We’re going to obviously take that on a day-to-day, week-to-week, month-to-month basis. From my seat, obviously, we have to plan accordingly, which we’ll do.”
The Panthers picked up Ekwonu’s fifth-year option ahead of the 2025 season. In other words, the 2022 first-round pick is going into a “prove it” year in 2026. How does the injury impact the contract?
“Contract stuff, again, it’s two days removed from the season,” Morgan said. “So myself, Brandt and Coach Canales, we’ll all get together to talk about the plan moving forward, and we’ll go from there.”
Ekwonu’s injury aside, the Panthers front office might be smart to invest some young, cost-controlled talent to their offensive line. The unit had a great year by most metrics, no doubt — but the Panthers are already expected to have the third-most expensive offensive line in the NFL ($86.6 million) entering free agency, and that’s without the futures of center Cade Mays and interior linemen Austin Corbett and Brady Christensen figured out. Mays, Corbett and Christensen are all free agents.
“I definitely feel like that is an area that I’d like to add to, even before Ickey’s injury,” Morgan said. “We want to obviously keep our strengths strong. And I think the only way to do that is draft young guys and stay ahead of the curve at those positions, and kind of stay ahead in succession planning. But yeah, we feel good about our O-Line.
“I’m glad we kept our core together this year because I think it really paid dividends for us this year. We had 15 different offensive line combinations. ... Getting those guys back was huge for us.”
Defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero’s contract ‘aligns’ with Dave Canales
Morgan clarified to reporters that defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero had his contract “aligned” with Canales — and thus, extended — ahead of the 2025 season. He also made it known that he has the utmost faith in Evero — who supervised a defense that made major improvements in 2025.
“I think if you look at EJ, if you’re around him every day, you see the way he works, how smart he is,” Morgan said. “I believe in his defense. I believe in his philosophy. He’s really good at developing players. Again, it’s my job as well to put him with the right personnel. Again, it’s a patience thing where we’re going to attack those needs, and we’re going to get better across the board.
“And as you see us keep adding talent on our roster, players on our roster developing, I think you’ll see that defense keep ascending.”
It’s true that Evero’s defense improved drastically from 2024 to 2025. The Panthers allowed the most points all-time in 2024 and a year later only averaged giving up 23 points per game, 16th across the league as of Tuesday, per Team Rankings. The unit was also much better against the run.
Canales told reporters Sunday that Evero will “absolutely, 100%” be the team’s defensive coordinator next year. But plans change, of course. Evero, for instance, was interviewed by the Las Vegas Raiders for their head coaching job earlier this week.
“If he gets a job, we’re going to have a plan of action, we’ll go from there,” Morgan said. “But yeah, I feel like our personnel can fit any scheme. So if we need to adjust to a 4-3 from a 3-4, if that comes, I feel like the personnel will be able to adapt and adjust really quickly.”
The running back room: Specifically Rico Dowdle, Jonathon Brooks
The highest profile free agent on the Panthers’ roster this year is running back Rico Dowdle, who crested 1,000 yards rushing for a second consecutive year. He was a massive reason for Carolina’s mid-season push before his opportunities and production dwindled down the stretch.
Dowdle expressed to reporters Sunday that his future is still very much in limbo, and he took to social media Monday affirming that fact.
Morgan said that he and Dowdle met on Sunday and “had a really good conversation” and that Dowdle “didn’t give me any indication” that he planned to be elsewhere next season.
That said, if Dowdle was to depart, the Panthers would have plenty of reinforcements at the running back position. The team has Chuba Hubbard, who Carolina signed to a four-year extension in the middle of last season, as well as Trevor Etienne, who just finished his rookie year.
The team also has Jonathon Brooks, who was placed on the season-ending physically unable to perform list before 2025 began because of a torn ACL. Morgan said that he is excited about his 2024 second-round draft pick and what he could potentially contribute in 2026 — particularly with how he’s handled the adversity in his young career.
“First off, just seeing Jonathon around the facility every day, the way that he attacks his rehab, the way that he attacks the weight room, being around the building with a smile on his face,” Morgan said. “He’s been through so much adversity, and he’s overcoming it.
“He’s looking great. He’s running really well. I saw him out there running routes the other day, he looked great. So yeah, he’s doing really good, I’m really proud of him and the way that he’s attacked this rehab process. It’s not easy. And he’s done great at it.”
What to make of the 2024 draft class, including Xavier Legette
The 2024 NFL Draft class had a collective “sophomore slump” by most indications. Wide receiver Xavier Legette saw his production, targets and snap count be overtaken by Jalen Coker, and linebacker Trevin Wallace battled injury all year.
Morgan was still optimistic about the future of those players, though, on Tuesday.
“I feel good about them. I think we’re all so quick to judge these guys,” Morgan said. “They’re maybe not developing as quickly as maybe the outside wants. But I think you gotta be patient with these guys. I think you gotta let them develop. I think you gotta let them grow.
“I think Trevin’s still 22 years old. Xavier, it took him until his senior year to really start developing and coming into his own at South Carolina. I think we’ll take a patient approach with those guys. We want them to develop, and keep getting better, and we work with them, and keep coaching them, and developing them, and helping them out.”
Quick hits
— Morgan, a former Pro Bowl linebacker for the Panthers, was about as effusive as he could be when describing the work Canales did during the 2025 season. Among the things he said of Canales: “Dave is a coach I’d like to play for if I was playing.”
— Morgan said the Panthers already have 600 players on their prospect board ahead of the 2026 NFL Draft in April. The Panthers will be picking 19th in the first round. Morgan didn’t offer any early indications of how the team will select beyond saying what he has the past few years: that it’s important to strike a balance between team needs and the talent available.
This story was originally published January 13, 2026 at 2:00 PM.
