As a fan of quarterback prospects, I was ready to go to war for Bryce Young in the 2023 draft, especially in comparison to one of the other top-ranked guys that year, Anthony Richardson. Ironically, people
argued that Young would get injured too often and Richardson would look lost in the NFL, but it turns out that AR-5 is the one who can’t stay healthy.
And they both look lost.
Young enters Week 13’s game against the Rams with a career record of 12-29 and half of those wins have come this season as the Panthers vie for a division title in the NFL’s worst division. I wanted to put Young’s 12 wins — or more accurately the 12 games that Carolina has won with him as the quarterback — not to rag on him but to emphasize just how much of an outlier it would be for the Panthers to beat the Rams on Sunday.
Also because as the Rams get closer to the unknown of a future without Matthew Stafford (and I know people don’t like me bringing this up), Bryce Young’s career is another cautionary tale against getting your hopes up too high for a number one quarterback. Winning in the NFL isn’t easy, but finding a great quarterback in the draft who helps you win is even harder.
Bryce Young’s 12 wins:
- Average margin of victory: 5.75 points
- Average margin of victory besides one 30-0 win over the Falcons: 3.54 points
- # of wins in overtime: 4 out of 12 total
- Wins against losing teams: 9
- Wins against winning teams: 2
- Wins against .500 teams: 1 (Cowboys this season)
- Record when Young has under 28 passes: 8-3
- Record when he has 28+ passes: 4-26
- Record when the Panthers score 30: 5-1
- Record when the Panthers scored under 30: 7-28
- When Young has multiple turnovers: 1-11
So far in his three-season career, the Panthers have only one a single game by more than seven points.
Let’s repeat that: In over 2.5 seasons with the number one pick, the Carolina Panthers have ONE win over 7 points. Out of 12 wins, eight have come by 3 points or less. These are the others:
- 30-0 over the Falcons in Week 3 of this season
- 13-6 over the Jets in Week 7 of this season
- 44-38 OT over the Falcons in Week 18 of last season
- 36-30 OT over the Cardinals in Week 16 of last season
So out of those four wins by more than 3 points, two came in overtime and all four came against teams that have/had losing records.
The Panthers beat the Falcons 30-0 in a game that saw Young throw for 121 yards and no touchdowns. Atlanta turned the ball over three times. If Raheem Morris is fired, pointing back to his two losses to the Panthers would be as good of a reason for it as any.
The Panthers sent the Jets to 0-7 by scoring a grand total of 13 points. Young had 138 yards and a touchdown and a fumble. The Jets played both Justin Fields and Tyrod Taylor in that game with neither looking like they are pro caliber quarterbacks.
Carolina beat the Falcons in a meaningless season finale last year and Young had 251 yards with 5 total touchdowns. Where is that guy against anyone other than the Falcons defense? They beat the Cardinals in similar OT fashion.
So the Falcons twice, the Cardinals, and the Jets. Got it. And only one of those wins wasn’t narrow.
Speaking of quality of opponent
The Panthers have only defeated three teams with Young that didn’t have a losing record:
In Young and C.J. Stroud’s rookie season, the Panthers beat the Texans 15-13 when Eddy Pineiro hit a 23-yard game winning field goal. Houston didn’t really turn into a good team until after that game, starting 3-4 (with that loss) and then winning 7 of their last 10 to make the playoffs out of a terrible divsion.
Then earlier this season, the Panthers beat the Packers 16-13 when Ryan Fitzgerald hit a 49-yard game-winning field goal as time expired. Say what you want about Green Bay’s 7-3-1 record…they haven’t really beaten anyone notable since the Lions in Week 1. (Your opinions about the Steelers maybe notwithstanding.)
So two wins over teams that maybe just barely qualify as good and they both necessitated a field goal with 000 on the clock. Got it.
The Panthers also beat the Cowboys 30-27 this season, and again Fitzgerald had to make a game-winning field goal with 000s. The Cowboys are 5-5-1. Whoopty-doo.
When you really get to the nitty gritty of playing against good teams, the Carolina Panthers fall apart every time.
- They played the Patriots and lost 42-13
- They played the Bills and lost 40-9
- They played the Jaguars and lost 26-10
- They played the 49ers and lost 20-9
That’s just this season. Last season, Carolina got stomped by the Bucs, Saints, Commanders, Falcons (once), Bears, Bengals, Cowboys, Broncos, and Chargers, losing all of those games by at least 10 points and eight of those games by at least 16 points.
The moral of the story is that if the L.A. Rams, as good as they are and as great as they are being called right now, win this game by anything less than 10 points…something must have gone horribly wrong.
The Panthers are as bad as any team in football that has held onto the same quarterback for the last 3 years. Bryce Young was a very exciting prospect coming out of college. He’s a completely lost puppy in the NFL.
