The Carolina Panthers have officially picked up quarterback Bryce Young’s fifth-year option. This is news in the most technical sense, as the team indicated their intention to do so months ago. This move has no effect on the team’s 2026 cap space and only ties them to Young through the 2o27 season.
What will the option cost?
The fifth year option price tag is calculated according to a scale set forth in the 2020 Collective Bargaining Agreement between the NFL and the NFL Players Association. The tiers and their payment requirements
are as follows, per overthecap.com:
- Basic: $22,936,000
- Playtime: $26,530,000
- One Pro Bowl: $39,723,000
- Multiple Pro Bowls: $46.073,000
Young qualifies for the playtime tier as he has played in both 50% or greater of all Panthers snaps over his past three seasons and 75% or greater of the same across two of his three seasons. As you can see, this could have been a much harder decision if Young had earned a Pro Bowl nod.
Should I be mad or excited?
Honestly, both are valid emotions. A lot of fans still believe that Young has a bright future as a quarterback in the NFL. A lot of fans think that he has besmirched their families honor and are lining up awaiting individual, personal apologies and remuneration. The truth about Young is that he hasn’t lived up to being drafted first overall in 2023—let alone to the trade that Panthers had to make to take him there. The truth is also that he was dropped into one of the worst landing situations for a rookie quarterback that you could imagine.
The fifth-year option gives Young a salary that is good for nineteenth in the league for 2027. So the Panthers aren’t even paying him as an above average quarterback at this number. If he has a bad season in ‘26 then the Panthers can draft a quarterback and move on with little lost.
The real trouble begins if Young lights it up next season. How do you value a quarterback with his pedigree who only has one statistically good season? Dan Morgan and Brandt Tilis have done incredible work with all of their contracts so far. I’d be curious to see how they play that situation.
