The Carolina Panthers have had a long, heavy hangover since their triumphant, 15-1 2015 season. The 11 years since then have seen some of the most pitiful play, coaching, and management that this franchise has ever known. A lot of us were holding our breath entering the 2026 season, waiting to see if the career of Bryce Young was going to take an incremental step forward—as he had managed each of the past two season—or if Young was simply going to take his place as one more sad chapter of the last
decade.
Instead, he may finally have found the first steps on the path to being the Panthers’ next franchise quarterback. 2026 may be the year of putting to rest all the sad streaks and facts of the last decade. January saw the first playoff game in over a decade. Last night was Charlotte’s first time hosting Sunday Night Football in over a decade. Now, after four games, Young leads the league with 1,268 yards passing, nine touchdowns, and only two interceptions. He is one of the top passers in the league right now and will, for the first time in over a decade for a Panthers quarterback, legitimately be in MVP conversations for at least the next two weeks. As we have said with every benchmark he has met thusfar in his career, what happens next is on him.
Beating the Lions to pull up to 2-2 feels like a season-saving moment. 1-3 with more holes due to injury than a screen porch—even in light of three stellar offensive performances—would have felt defeating. Instead, Ejiro Evero’s defense used a preseason roster to hold off one of the best offenses in the NFL. They held the Lions to just 19 points before losing Jaelan Phillips to a concussion. The offense put up 22 points before 2026 first round pick and second string right tackle Monroe Freeling went down with an unspecified knee injury, leaving third stringer Stone Forsythe to match up against one of the best defensive linemen in the NFL in Aidan Hutchinson. They gutted out the rest of the game with a 10-7 margin to keep the win.
In a game where they came in with two hands behind their backs, they lost another leg, shot themselves in the remaining foot with two missed extra points, and still won. What’s not to be optimistic about?
There is no break down of what I did and didn’t like this week. Let’s just celebrate. We’ll dig into injury timelines and updates more during the bye, but the bottom line is that the Panthers are poised to get healthier and be a stronger team when they come back to face the Eagles in Week 6 and the rest of their schedule beyond.
Almost all of us predicted the team would be 2-2 heading into the bye, but I guarantee that none of you predicted it would look like this—or that it would feel so promising.
