Bryce Young, Panthers finish season with momentum heading into 2025

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Carolina Panthers concluded their 2024 regular season with a 44-38 overtime win on the road against the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday, Jan. 5th. The Panthers finished the season with a 5-12 overall record and third place in the NFC South division.

Their record wasn’t much to celebrate, but Panthers’ fans should be optimistic about the future of the franchise with Bryce Young under center. After a rough rookie season and many believing that they made the wrong choice by drafting him over Houston Texans quarterback CJ Stroud, Young have made the citizens of Charlotte a believer.

He was benched after two weeks into the season this year, but had a resurgence once he was inserted back into the lineup. Young spent five weeks as Andy Dalton’s backup, and he clearly took advantage of the ‘time off.’ He didn’t demand a trade, trash the coaching staff or the organization nor did he feel sorry for himself. He simply just refocused, reset and was ready when his number was called again.

The former 2023 number one overall pick was named the starter again in week eight against the Denver Broncos. The Panthers lost 28-14, but Young looked his best since entering the NFL. He threw two touchdowns that game and didn’t have any turnovers. He then began to look even better over his next nine games, which including show his late-game heroics in seven of the nine games with either go ahead or game-tying scores.

Young finished the season looking like the guy many people saw in college with his ability to extend plays using his legs, making throws in tight windows and showing that cool and calm poise under center.

He ended his sophomore campaign with 2,403 yards passing, 15 touchdown passes, nine interceptions, a 60.9% completion rate and six rushing touchdowns. Also, 20 of his 21 touchdowns this season were scored in the last 10 games of the season. His best game ironically came in the season finale where he threw for 251 passing, which was his third highest this season, along with five total touchdowns(3 passing, 2 rushing).

“This year has definitely been something that I’ve never had before, but God doesn’t make mistakes. I’m grateful for the path he had me on,” Young said. “It’s super encouraging. In the offseason [I’m] still gonna look at stuff to improve on.”

He also spoke about how the overall team, including himself, needs to get better overall and needs to show consistency to be a playoff team.

“As a team, we’re not where we wanna be right now,” Young said. “It was a great day [to beat the Falcons] and it proves what we can do, but we have to be consistent, we have to keep going.”

Panthers rookie wide receiver Xavier Legette didn’t turn many heads this season with his underwhelming play. He failed to register a 100-yard receiving game this season, but had his best stretch of games when Young was re-inserted back into the starting lineup. From Oct. 27 against the Broncos to Dec.1st against the Buccaneers, Legette recorded 216 receiving yards and two of his four touchdown receptions came during that stretch.

Hopefully, a good 2025 Draft, along with continued improvement from both Young and Legette could keep the Panthers moving in the right direction. It is hard to say they will be a playoff team next season, but they will need to continue to show improvement or else there could be a complete rebuild again in 2026.