The sentiment expressed in the title has a double meaning. 1) I’m making the case that Bryce Young will turn things around in 2024 and 2) It’ll be due to changes with the offensive line, leading them to do a better job of “defending” him on pass plays. See what I did there?
First, I’ll point out that last year Bryce Young had perhaps the worst Quarterback performance of the season. It was his rookie year, which is always tough for a Quarterback who was drafted as the 1st overall pick. It means he was selected by technically the worst team in the NFL. As it were, the Carolina Panthers finished with a league-low 2-15 record and among Quarterbacks with at least 15 starts (Bryce Young had 16) he had the worst production stats for:
For efficiency numbers, Bryce Young was:
- Last in Yards per Attempt & Yards per Completion
- Last in Passer Rating
- Last in Adjusted Net Yards per Attempt
- 2nd to last for Yards per Game
- 2nd to last in Completion Percentage
- 2nd to last in Touchdown Percentage
This is a problem. That said, it’s important to understand what he was up against.
“Defending” Bryce Young’s Results
The challenge that Bryce Young was contending with was a depleted Offensive line. Carolina’s front 5 had no less than 11 different linemen getting snap counts throughout the 2023 season. Reports on the situation suggest this was driven by injuries and poor play.
On the injury front, guard Brady Christensen didn’t even get through the 1st week before he went out for the season. Then Austin Corbett suffered a severe knee injury ending his year after just 4 games. A review of Pro Football Focus grades over at www.catscratchreader.com shows that the rotation of the other linemen delivered average to weak performances, with guard Calvin Throckmorton even being cut midseason.
Under these circumstances, Bryce Young was doomed to have a busted year. Along with the performance numbers listed above, his advanced stats looked pretty bleak. His On Target % was 27th in the league, while his Bad Throw % was 1st (in a bad way). But this was clearly a direct result of the troubles at the line of scrimmage.
Bryce Young faced the 3rd most Pressures of all Quarterbacks in 2023 and was Sacked the 2nd most. On top of that, he ended up with the most Throw Aways in the league. This highlights that defenses were bearing down on him game after game and it was all he could do to stay alive. To his credit, he produced only the 14th-worst Interception total despite the Bad Throws and Throw Aways.
“Defending” Bryce Young from the Other Team
To shore up the offensive line, the Carolina Panthers signed free agents Robert Hunt and Damien Lewis at a price of well over $100 million for multi-year deals. Hunt is coming from Miami where he was rated 6th amongst guards by Pro Football Focus in 2023. Damien Lewis is entering his 5th season, coming from Seattle. While with the Seahawks the young durable lineman played 16 games 3 times and 13 games once. The Panthers will benefit from that kind of stability.
Along with these new pieces at the guard positions Austin Corbett is returning from surgery, sliding over to the center position. Tackles Ikem Ekwonu, who played every snap of every game across the last 2 seasons, and Taylor Moton, who did the same across the last 6 seasons, can look forward to having reliable partners on their respective sides of the offensive line.
A Small but Poignant Indicator
As an indicator of whether or not these off-season moves will bear fruit, we can look at the Carolina Panthers opening drive in week 3 of the preseason. Of course, preseason games are far less competitive than the regular season and it represents a fairly small sample size, so I won’t draw any major conclusions.
That said, what we did see was Robert Hunt in the lineup alongside Moton. The two appeared to be in sync as they dropped into pass coverage. Ekwonu was lined up as left tackle while the left guard and center positions had rotation players, Chandler Zavala and Andrew Raym. Regardless, it was a good look at most of the offensive line that Bryce Young will be playing behind. Overall, his performance with this group looked pretty good:
- 75% completion rate (6 of 8)
- 70 yards passing in an 85-yard drive
- 11.7 yards per completion v. 9.1 last season
- 140.6 Passer Rating
- … and the drive ended with a touchdown pass
These are great numbers. However, the eye test also showed that Bryce has some things to work out. He was comfortable extending the play with his legs, but he seemed uncomfortable settling into the pocket. Each time the pocket closed around him; he was quick to bring the ball in and move out. He’ll have to work on his pocket presence and settling into progressions.
I imagine it will take a few games to get over the experiences from last season and connect with the new offensive setup. In the end, I’m expecting Bryce Young to climb from the bottom of the Quarterback standings up to mid-tier. He’s not going to be a game changer at this point in his career, but he will absolutely make his presence known. With these changes and the investments, they’ve made in their offense, the Carolina Panthers will finally get the value they’ve been looking for from their 1st round pick of a year ago… says me.