'I wouldn't still be playing football' — Bryce Young’s improvement directly helped him recruit a top target to come back in 2025

The Carolina Panthers felt like an inevitable crossroads was going to be coming up with quarterback Bryce Young when it came to determining whether or not he could lead this franchise into the future.

Head coach Dave Canales wanted to get ahead of that critical moment sooner than later, opting to remove Young from the starting lineup during the 2024 season.

It was a bold move to make and it was all about giving Young the opportunity to sit back, learn, and reset before taking the wheel back as QB1.

Five weeks after being "benched" Young returned to the starting lineup in Week 8 and finished the season playing with a lot more confidence. The whole team felt it too, to the point one key offensive play-maker saw something switch in his quarterback that decided to make him run it back for another season.

"I wouldn't still be playing football if that wasn't the case," Panthers' WR Adam Thielen said on Stupodity with Stugotz. "I think having the way he finished last year — his confidence, his mindset, the way that he led in the locker room — and that paired with the leadership in the organization and where this organization has gone since I got here, it's hard to not want to be a part of that."

Already in the early portion of the offseason, we've seen Young operate with a lot more command and having a much stronger voice in the locker room. In the NFL, that's what everyone on the team needs to see out of the quarterback position.

"He just figured out what he needs to do to make the team be its best," Thielen explained. "In the league, it just takes some time to figure that out. It's not college where you just show up, be a good teammate and things work out. Guys are going to look to you and they're going to want a certain thing from the quarterback as far as leadership and communication, that mentality. . .

"I think that lightbulb hit for him and he started to see how other people reacted, it wasn't necessarily going to make his game better, but it was going to make everyone around him better. When he realized that, it really took him to the next level."