Here's a story you wouldn't have seen one year ago at this time. Thanks to a second-half surge in the 2024 regular season by Bryce Young, the Carolina Panthers and their fans have legitimate reason to feel optimistic about the future for the first time in quite a while.
Young may have had a rough rookie season and he indisputably bombed the first two games of last season, performing about as badly as any quarterback has in the modern NFL. However, after getting benched for six weeks Young came out swinging when he returned to the lineup and started putting the pieces together.
With one exception in a bad game against Dallas, Young continued to improve the rest of the year, and by the time the Week 18 season finale against Atlanta came around he looked like a Pro Bowl passer with a ceiling as high as any young QB in the league.
Moving towards the 2025 campaign, Young now appears to be the kind of playmaker a team can build around. According to Nick Shook at NFL.com, Young has the fourth most valuable rookie contract for a quarterback. Only Jayden Daniels, C.J. Stroud and Brock Purdy ranked higher.
NFL.com on Bryce Young as building block
"It's not guaranteed, but Young's outlook is much more promising than it was a year ago. The three QBs ranked just below Young here had generally stronger rookie performances than Young did. It's true. But Carolina's QB has been tested by NFL adversity in a way those guys haven't yet been, and Young proved he could come through the other side, thus giving him a leg up on this list."
Speaking of the rest of the list, Young should be ranked higher than Brock Purdy, who's reportedly going to get a new deal worth $50 million a year that may well close the 49ers' Super Bowl window, but that's a story for another day.
That would put Young third in the league behind Stroud and Daniels in this department. Getting back to the playoffs will require adding more playmakers on both sides of the ball, but the Panthers are much closer to returning to the postseason than the average non-Carolina fan knows.
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