There was no playoff berth on the line in overtime in Atlanta on Sunday, but it still turned out to be a memorable ending to the 2024 season for quarterback Bryce Young and the Panthers.
Young’s three passing touchdowns and two rushing touchdowns in regulation helped get the game into the extra session and he went 5-of-5 for 56 yards on the opening drive to move the Panthers to the lip of the end zone. Running back Miles Sanders got to score the game-winner, but Young’s play throughout the game put an exclamation point on a major jump forward for the first overall pick of the 2023 draft.
The Panthers benched Young two weeks into the season and turned back to him when Andy Dalton was injured in a midseason car accident. They got a more confident, efficient and successful quarterback when Young returned to the lineup and he closed out the year with his three highest single-game passer ratings.
For much of that 10-game run as a starter, head coach Dave Canales resisted any proclamations that Young was the established starter for the franchise. He dropped that a couple of weeks ago and referenced it with a joke in Sunday’s postgame press conference before praising what he’s seen from the quarterback this season.
“I’d say we’ll take it week by week. We got no more weeks, Bryce is our quarterback,” Canales said. “I’m so proud of the way that he just took the challenge and he just grew every week. He just took new lessons, new things [and] applied it to his game.”
The Panthers will look for continued growth from Young heading into his third season, but stabilizing things on that front should also allow them to spend a little more time working on the defense. The Panthers allowed more points this season than any team in NFL history, so that will need to be a focal point of their bid to build on what went right for them this year.
