The rookie campaign Carolina Panthers fans got from quarterback Bryce Young was a colossal disappointment. Unfortunately, those struggles have continued with new head coach Dave Canales in the season opener against the New Orleans Saints.
What are we to make of Young’s struggles in Week 1 of the 2024 NFL season?
Bryce Young Struggles Against New Orleans Saints in 2024 Season Opener
When you find yourself trailing 37-3 in the third quarter against a division rival, you can say with a fair amount of certainty the season isn’t getting off on the right foot.
Through Young’s first game of the 2024 season, to say his advanced metrics looked quite rough would be a big understatement.
Young threw two interceptions — which gave him an interceptions per passing attempt of 11.1%, a completion percentage of 42.9%, and an offensive total pass EPA of -9.58 through the first 14 passing attempts of the season.
Yikes.
In fact, all of Young’s EPA stats look atrocious through all of his first dropbacks against the Saints.
Bryce Young EPA Stats Through First Game of the 2024 NFL Season
- Offensive Dropback EPA: minus-9.64
- Offensive Throw EPA: minus-7.19
- Offensive Sacked EPA: minus-5.66
- Offensive Pass Scramble EPA: minus-3.21
- Offensive Interception EPA: minus-5.89
I understand the Saints’ secondary is expected to be among the better units in the league, but these struggles appear to mirror what we saw from Young’s rookie year.
On the surface, Young’s 2,877 passing yards for 11 touchdowns and 10 interceptions over 16 games is already rough enough. When you look at his EPA numbers from 2023, it looks equally concerning.
Bryce Young EPA Stats from the 2023 NFL Season
- Offensive Dropback EPA: minus-132.82
- Offensive Throw EPA: minus-37.41
- Offensive Sacked EPA: minus-120.11
- Offensive Pass Scramble EPA: 24.69
- Offensive Interception EPA: minus-50.57
The organization prioritized surrounding Young with a significant number of weapons this offseason, adding Diontae Johnson, Xavier Legette, Ja’Tavion Sanders, and Jonathon Brooks to join Adam Thielen, Jonathan Mingo, and Chuba Hubbard on offense.
Those weapons can’t thrive if we don’t see significant signs of improvement from Young in Year 2. Young’s start to the second season of his career has to be majorly concerning for a player the organization traded up to No. 1 overall in the 2023 NFL Draft to make their franchise quarterback.
Young showed a lot of promise during his collegiate days at the University of Alabama. He had 8,356 yards, 80 passing touchdowns, and just 12 interceptions in 35 games with the Crimson Tide.
Young’s ability to process information both pre-snap and post-snap, throw with anticipation over the middle of the field, and extend plays with his athleticism all made Carolina overlook his size concerns entering the league.
Yet, the issues up front with the offensive line, the inability of receivers to create separation consistently, and the poor play of Young all have to be very big concerns for the Panthers when it comes to Young’s future if this level of ineptitude continues throughout the rest of the 2024 campaign.
The Panthers will square off against the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 2 of the 2024 NFL season. This could present an opportunity for Young to bounce back in a big way against a leaky secondary that allowed an average of 249.8 passing yards per game last year, which was the fourth-lowest mark in the league in 2023.