It's easy to forget sometimes how rare a talent Carolina Panthers great Cam Newton was.
Coming into the NFL, Newton was ready to compete at the sport's highest level right away, and wound up posting what was arguably the most impressive rookie season a quarterback ever has in this league. The truth is that Newton was an alien, and most No. 1 overall picks need time to get adjusted to the level of competition they face as a pro—even if they dominated in college, high school and Pop Warner football along the way.
For the Panthers right now, their patience with their most recent top overall pick Bryce Young is at last being rewarded. It's taken a while—but two games into his fourth season, Young appears to finally be reaching his full potential.
According to Tyler Sullivan at CBS Sports, Young has done something no Carolina quarterback has since Newton back in 2017 to begin the season. He writes:
Don't look now, but Bryce Young is on a heater. The Panthers QB completed 23 of 26 for 287 yards and three touchdowns in a win over Atlanta. Young is the first Panthers quarterback with three-plus passing touchdowns in back-to-back games since 2017 (Cam Newton).
The numbers for Newton that year (11-5, 3,302 passing yards, 22 touchdowns, 16 interceptions, 754 yards, six touchdowns rushing) really don't do justice to the effort he made carrying the Panthers to the playoffs. In fact, he had garnered a bit of early MVP talk for his 2017 campaign.
For what it's worth, Young is on pace to blow those stats out of the water here in 2026. Through two games, he's already up to 648 passing yards, six touchdowns and just one interception.
Only all-time greats like Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes have managed to average at least three touchdowns per game for an entire season. It will be really interesting to see how long Young can keep this hot streak going.
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This article originally appeared on Panthers Wire: Bryce Young's heater represents first for Panthers since Cam Newton's prime
