Bryce Young truly was a battered being last fall. Opposing defenses sacked the Panthers quarterback 62 times. Need some context? No league QB had been taken down that much in a decade.
And now one NFL analyst is predicting that Young will be one of the league’s players most under pressure. So the No. 1 pick of the 2023 NFL Draft could go from bruises to anxiety. Maybe both.
Bucky Brooks, a league analyst for Fox Sports, named the five players under the most pressure for 2024. You could say Young fits that description literally and figuratively. The former Alabama star knows the Panthers need to win more than two games. And personally, if he doesn’t up his game, then the critics come out and will ponder if he’s a bust. See, it’s not a great situation, at least with training camp a couple of weeks away.
Brooks wrote of Young: “After a disappointing rookie campaign, the former No. 1 overall pick has been dismissed as an elite talent. Despite playing in a dysfunctional environment, critics have taken Young to task for failing to flash “franchise” potential by single-handedly making his squad competitive against all odds.
“With his classmate, CJ Stroud, looking like a potential superstar, the pressure is on the second-year pro to show up and show out under new head coach Dave Canales. Considering the quarterback guru helped resurrect the careers of Geno Smith and Baker Mayfield before landing the gig in Charlotte, Young needs to step up his game to alleviate some of the concerns regarding the team’s hefty investment in the young quarterback.”
Brian Burns, former Panthers edge rusher, also is in top 5
The Panthers quarterback is the youngest in Brooks’ top five. Coincidentally, Carolina produced another player on the list. But edge rusher Brian Burns is now a former Panthers player. After wanting more money from Carolina, Burns signed a five-year deal, worth $141 million, with the Giants. Brooks figured that Burns will be under pressure to produce because of the hefty contract. Plus, he’s now playing in the brightest lights, considering NYC is the largest media market in the country.
The Panthers did hire a perfect coach for Young. As Brooks noted, Canales has worked with several quarterbacks who needed a career pivot. And the situation should be far steadier than last year, when Carolina fired new coach Frank Reich 11 games into the season.
Young talked about the tweaks he’s made in his own game as the Panthers were going through minicamp. Some of those changes came in his mental approach.
Before, he said, Young “tried just to suppress everything and stay flatline, and it was really hard. It didn’t really work. And nowadays I kind of allow myself to have temporary (moments) of I’m too negative or I’ll say something that I’ll be super silly. And I allow myself to do that as long as I can reel myself back in. It kind of makes it easier to stabilize versus just trying to be more flatline.”
The other players on Brooks list include Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson, Eagles linebacker Devin White and new Texans receiver Stefon Diggs. You can check out the entire story here.
The Panthers start training camp, July 24th.
