Panthers' Bryce Young ready to turn the page with QB whisperer Dave Canales after a forgettable rookie season

Young will lead a new-look Carolina offense into 2024

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- At some point this summer, Bryce Young is going to gather up his pass-catchers at an undisclosed location to get some work in ahead of training camp.

He won't say when or where when asked at his end-of-minicamp press conference, opting to keep that private. When we talk in the visitors locker room at Bank of America Stadium, he tells me there's no great mystery behind it. He just doesn't think it's his place to say.

"It's probably not what the media would love to hear, so my apologies, but there are some things that are family related," the second-year Carolina Panthers quarterback says. "And I definitely consider this to be a family. If there's something family related, I don't really feel comfortable speaking about it. That's just kind of how I'm wired.

"Sometimes it gets extreme. Like I don't think there would have been anything wrong with saying it. Just naturally, when people ask me about other people or about family stuff, I don't know if I want to broadcast that in front of the world."

This is Young's leadership style in a nutshell. He will lead. He will do. But he doesn't have to talk about it. He doesn't feel the need to prove anything through his emotions or voice when his actions can handle it.

It's something that, in just a few months of working together, Panthers first-year head coach Dave Canales has already noticed.

"Bryce is very much comfortable with being a leader," Canales tells me, "but he also understands that there's a level of respect gained by working and performing to the highest of your standards. He was not satisfied with his performance last year. He knows he's got work to do. So he's not going to try to take this vocal role because that's not what he does. 

"But he will call the offense up after different practices and just capture moments where we look good, where we are moving. Or if there was a day where it was like clunky and we're not lining up properly, he has no problem saying, 'Guys, our standard is higher than this.' And it's a very clear message. I think he's very tactful in finding those little situations, and I can tell he's really comfortable with that role, really."

The 2023 Carolina Panthers season was a disaster. Good luck trying to take many positives from the 2-15 effort. Head coach Frank Reich lasted just 11 games before getting fired, not even making it to the 13-game watermark left by Urban Meyer in Jacksonville.

Young dropped back to pass 486 times last season with the Panthers trailing, which led the league. Over the past 10 seasons, only rookie-year Trevor Lawrence with the aforementioned Meyer-uars had more dropbacks while trailing than Young. 

Young mustered 5.5 yards per attempt, which was last among qualified passers. His 62 sacks were tied for the most sacks taken by a quarterback in a season over the past decade. His receiving group competed with the Patriots to be the worst in the league and was below league average in separation and open windows, according to Next Gen Stats.

You couldn't blame the former Heisman Trophy winner and No. 1 overall pick for not talking much about last season. But it's not for the reasons you may think.

"I'm big on controlling what I can control and making sure that that's what's focusing," Young says. "Whatever happened the past year -- the good, the bad, whatever. It's not something that I can control. It's not something that holds sway over what we're doing anymore. So I think the more energy you put on stuff that doesn't have any effect on what we're trying to be. You can take away from the goal in itself."

In the offseason, the Panthers traded for Pittsburgh wideout Diontae Johnson. They paid the bad-team tax to sign guard Robert Hunt to a massive $100 million deal and then double-dipped to get guard Damien Lewis. They'll need much better play from left tackle Ickey Ekwonu after his sophomore slump. And then Carolina drafted receiver Xavier Legette and running back
Jonathon Brooks within 11 picks of each other in April. 

Now it's up to Canales to improve the league's second-worst offense from a year ago. A one-year offensive coordinator with the Bucs, Canales helped resurrect Baker Mayfield's career in Tampa after spending a decade in Seattle around Russell Wilson.

He's made a career out of getting the most from shorter quarterbacks, which is who he has in Carolina with the 5-foot-10 Young. He's building an offense that features concepts that attack defenses more vertically and outside the numbers.

There will be throws to the middle of the field. But most importantly, it's about staying in rhythm, getting the ball out quickly and having good eye discipline.

"I haven't seen [last year] really impact him," Canales says when I ask what residual is on his quarterback from last year. "And I think the more that everybody gets to know Bryce, the more you're going to see the guy's really composed. He's got the same effect on his face.

"When I watched him at Alabama for all those years, whether it was one of their early games where they're running somebody out of a stadium or whether it was a game late in the year, he's got the same effect in those moments. He's the same way when it comes about his work. So I know that there's a there's going to be a measure of him just feeling certain games out. But he's a guy that has been the best player in high school. The best player in college. So he expects to be the best player again."

Fortunately for Young, there's also going to be a consistent message in his ear. Tepper attempted to put an all-star coaching staff together in 2023 following the dismissal of Matt Rhule. He hired the veteran Reich and joined him with offensive coordinator Thomas Brown from the Rams, while giving longtime NFL quarterback Josh McCown his first NFL coaching gig as the position coach.

Brown put the offense together in the offseason. Then, sources say, Reich took control over the offense once the team neared training camp. Brown got play-calling duties during the Week 7 bye for the 0-6 Panthers. Then Reich took them back three games later. Tepper then fired Reich and McCown 11 games into the season and handed play-calling back to Brown.

The Panthers mustered 20 offensive touchdowns all season. From Weeks 7 into 16 they had three passing touchdowns. At no point in the season could anyone even offer a cliché to the question, "What is your offensive identity?"

But there's more familiarity with this coaching staff. Canales spent 13 seasons with the Seahawks before his year as OC with the Bucs. Brad Idzik, his offensive coordinator, has been with Canales at both stops since 2019. And quarterbacks coach Will Harriger was in Seattle from 2014 through 2018.

"All those guys being in the room and having coached together, having a background and them being on the same page, for myself, for everyone in the offense, us knowing that we can speak the same language in all the talks we have," Young says. "They're all being assertive. 

"Let's make sure it's communicated. And for us, for everyone learning a new system, being in that, I think it's really helped all of our development and comfortability in the system."

Young wants this communication. Demands it, actually. If there's a play where the middle of the field is open and the receiver doesn't hit his landmark but the ball is caught, Young still goes to the coaches and asks, "Are we OK with this?"

If you don't see Young talking on the field, know there's plenty of talking being done elsewhere. He's been working on himself recently. The most emotion he would ever show would be negative emotion directed at himself. "The only time he really emotes is if he makes an improper decision," Canales says. He'll smack his hands together or ball his fists down by his side.

Young has worked to find the balance of not being too negative but also not being too loose. He'll crack a joke on the sideline now where maybe he wouldn't have before.

"That's something that I've thought about and wrestled with a lot, and I've tried just to suppress everything and stay flatline, and it was really hard. It didn't really work," Young says. "And nowadays I kind of allow myself to have temporary [moments] of I'm too negative or I'll say something that I'll be super silly. And I allow myself to do that as long as I can reel myself back in. It kind of makes it easier to stabilize versus just trying to be more flatline."

On the second and final day of minicamp, the Panthers worked end-of-game red-zone situations. Young looked left and fired a pass to tight end Jordan Matthews for a touchdown. He gave a subtle fist pump and then jogged to paydirt to celebrate.

Later, after a small scuffle between the offense and defense had broken out, Young spent time behind the line of scrimmage with Matthews to discuss what each saw on that play that led to success.

"He just kind of has his own way of floating and connecting with guys," Canales says. "You don't become the best player in high school and in college and the Heisman Trophy winner by just being a nice guy. He's kind. Kindness is great. Kindness is a choice. He's kind, but he's also very driven. He's very focused."