Carolina Panthers fans: Do not call your doctor. Stay off of WebMD. No need to rush to the local pharmacy to get a vaccine booster.
There’s nothing wrong with you. That unfamiliar feeling in your stomach? It’s hope.
After sitting out the first two preseason games, the Panthers played their regulars to start the exhibition finale in Buffalo. That includes most of the rebuilt offensive line, the top receivers—most of which are new arrivals—and, of course, second-year quarterback Bryce Young.
You read all of that right. The Carolina Panthers played their regulars … and some of you may still be experiencing signs of hope.
Granted, the regulars weren’t in there long. Young and the linemen got a total of 12 snaps. Running back Chuba Hubbard took 10. Adam Thielen had 11. The gang was together for all of one drive, but that’s one drive more than the success-starved city has seen go well in the last several years of false starts and letdowns.
Young, the first overall pick in the 2023 draft, represented a new start for the franchise last season. That start was derailed by a porous offensive line and a coaching staff that redefined instability, with the play-calling duties seemingly decided by revolving door. Young’s rookie season had to be given a grade of incomplete, because no one could have developed in that environment—picture a caterpillar building a cocoon in a blender.
Young was cautious, relying heavily on Thielen as his main receiver or dump-offs to tight ends or running backs, stringing together short gains until a sack or other calamity eventually ended the drive.
For 12 shining plays in the final preseason game, however, we got a glimpse of what Young could eventually become.
He started with passes to tight ends on the first two snaps, then three handoffs and a sack, leaving observers sighing and muttering about the same old thing.
Then something changed, however, and Young seemed to blossom, mid-drive. He found Jonathan Mingo, a wide receiver. Then he converted a fourth-and-three to another receiver, Dionte Johnson, acquired from Pittsburgh in an offseason trade. That play went for 17 yards. The next play was a pass to Thielen for 21. He finished the drive three plays later with an eight-yard pass to tight end Jordan Matthews in the end zone.
It may not sound like much, but it represented a milestone in Young’s maturation. The three consecutive completions to Mingo, Johnson and Thielen was something that took Young almost all of last year to accomplish—completing passes to three different wide receivers on a drive.
Out of the 157 drives Young presided over as a rookie, he had completions to three different wide receivers (tight ends and running backs don’t count) on just 11 of them.
Young also showed an appetite for throwing downfield that was missing from his rookie year. Even when he did find a receiver, it was usually for a short gain, or a catch and run. The 17 and 21-yard completions were even rarer during Young’s rookie season.
It took until drive number 94, in the fourth quarter of the Nov. 26 game against Tennessee, for Young to throw two completions of 17 yards or longer on the same drive. In the final month of the season, he would do it another five times, for a total of six in his 157 drives.
“I saw him extend plays with his legs, keeping his eyes down the field, finding guys,” new coach Dave Canales said of Young. “You can see the carry-over from practice to the game … Those are the things that are so critical for us. He handled the run game with great expertise and got us to the right runs in those situations. So, I felt great about it.”
The fourth-and-three completion may have been the most encouraging play of the dozen. Young held the ball for more than three seconds but never panicked, didn’t dump off, fought the temptation to cut and run. He rolled to his left, stopped, reset his feet and fired downfield, getting all 17 yards through the air.
“Poise, eyes down the field,” Canales said. “You know, that aggressive nature, but being able to do it within the confines of what’s the smartest thing to do in this situation. He kept it alive, found us a completion, and then we ended up coming away with a touchdown a little bit later.”
It’s not a guarantee of success, by any means, but it was a brief snapshot of where things could go, if everything goes well. And for once, the phrase “if everything goes well” may not have sent shudders up the spines of Panthers fans.
It was a lottery ticket, tucked in the toe of a Christmas stocking, after years of getting nothing but coal. And it may just have had some Panther fans feeling a bit light-headed.
That’s perfectly normal. Folks in other NFL cities feel that all the time.
You might even get used to it.
