Projecting Bryce Young's Stats in 2023
Whether it's Week 1 or not, at some point Bryce Young will be the starting quarterback of the Carolina Panthers in 2023. Assuming he continues to learn the offense at his current pace, there's no reason why he won't trot out with the starters for the season opener in Atlanta.
"It's clear every time we step into a meeting with him, it's clear that he's taking the material, whatever was presented the day before, he's taking that and he's spent time with it at home," Panthers quarterbacks coach Josh McCown said. "And he's digested it and he comes with questions. That's what a pro does. He's got great questions, very insightful. A lot of times well beyond what a rookie would ask, so that's encouraging. That expedites the process for us meeting-wise because we can get to some second, third, fourth level-type answers. He's doing a great job of taking the information, processing it, and this is kind of the downloading phase right now of all that information he's doing a good job of that."
For this exercise, we are going to anoint Young as QB1 for Week 1 and project his totals for the 17-game season.
Projected stats: 295/481 (61%) 3,304 yards, 22 touchdowns, 11 interceptions.
Although Frank Reich is someone who likes to spread things out and throw the ball around, he understands that the strength of this team, at the moment, is the ground game. I think most would agree that the Panthers have a top-10 caliber offensive line unit when fully healthy and with Miles Sanders and Chuba Hubbard in the backfield, there's a real opportunity for Carolina to have a strong presence rushing the ball.
At receiver, the Panthers have an assortment of nice pieces but I'm not sure any one of them will strike fear into an opposing defense. Maybe Terrace Marshall Jr. or Jonathan Mingo becomes that guy but neither of them has proved anything yet. When Young does drop back to throw, I believe we'll see a lot of quick game/underneath routes where the objective is to get the ball out of his hands quickly to make up for his lack of size AND to get the ball to playmakers in space. We'll occasionally see some deep shots down the field, but this offense won't rely on it nearly as much as yards after the catch.
Young will have more than one security blanket to go to with tight end Hayden Hurst, running back Miles Sanders, and slot receiver Adam Thielen. The veteran, Thielen, is as reliable as they come over the middle, and Hurst and Sanders have proven to be reliable in their own right.
Sure, the numbers I projected aren't eye-popping by any means but they don't need to be. The ground game and defense will help Young win games and position Carolina to be in the conversation for the NFC South title.
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