During his Monday press conference, fresh off a bye and starting preparation for the reigning Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs, Carolina Panthers’ head coach Dave Canales officially named quarterback Bryce Young the starter for week 12.
“Bryce will play this week. Again, this is about the continued progress. This is
about Bryce looking more and more confident as he’s out there. In Germany, I just felt a real confidence and an aggressiveness to his play – all those things. And of course the result. The end result – winning. He continues to do things that puts us in a position to put him back out there and continue to build on that.”
But with all of that, Canales has refused to officially name Young the starter for the remainder of the season.
“Yes, we will,” Canales said when I asked him if he will continue to evaluated who will start on a week-to-week basis. “We’ll continue to look at all the film, look at the whole situation and weigh all those things.”
The hesitancy to name Bryce the starter for the remainder of the season is puzzling. Is it that Canales wants to provide weekly motivation for his 2nd year quarterback? Does he truly believe in Bryce Young or is he just rolling with him until the team losses again?
In a perfect world for the Panthers Bryce will prove himself to be the guy to lead the offense for years to come. He may not be the game-changer type quarterback Carolina formerly had in Cam Newton, but most aren’t. If Young can evolve into a efficient game-manager, who can make the right play when needed Dan Morgan and company can build around that – placing playmakers around him to help bolster the offense (like what the 49ers have done with Brock Purdy). But you’ll never know if he can be that guy if you don’t play him and he’ll never be that guy in Carolina if you don’t show belief in him.
The week-to-week back and forth isn’t doing Bryce or the Panthers any favors. It’s time to officially roll with him the remainder of the year, so that you can make a clear and informed decision about his future with the franchise after the season with a large enough sample size to do so.