Breaking down what number Bryce Young needs to hit for Panthers to have success

The Carolina Panthers have a record of 11-26 when Bryce Young is the starting quarterback. In games where Young throws less than 30 pass, Carolina is 8-6, including 4-1 this season. But when Young attempts 30 or more passes, the team is just 3-20, including 1-3 in 2025.

Young’s competition percentage is 61.7 on the season, which is below the league average of 65.2%. In games throwing less than 30 passes in 2025, Young is completing passes at a rate of 63.9%, but that numbers drops to just 60%. His yards per attempt in games with under 30 pass attempts is 5.75, while that number drops to 5.33 YPA when throwing 30-plus times. The league average is 7.1 YPA.

The NFL stage looks a little too big for Bryce Young pic.twitter.com/vmcbEH2dqd
— Steven Patton (@PattonAnalytics) November 12, 2025

On average, Young is attempting just under 30 passes per game at 29.89. Based on Carolina’s success with Young throwing less than 30 passes, let’s say he stays at 29 attempts, and sticking at his completion rate of 63.9%, that’s 18.53 completions. Young’s yards per game when attempting less than 30 passes is 136.8 yards, with six total touchdowns (five passing, one rushing), and four turnovers (three interceptions, one fumble lost).

In games where Young attempts less than 30 passes this season, Bryce Young averages 15.2 completions on 23.8 attempts for 136.8 yards, 1.2 TDs and 0.8 turnovers. For the sake of rounding, 15 of 24 for 137 yards, 1 TD and 1 turnover.

Now that we’ve laid out the numbers, the question now is: are there enough targets to go around to the skill players?

When it comes to the receiving corps, WR Tetairoa McMillan averages 3.6 receptions for 43.2 yards in the five games where Young averages less than 30 pass attempts.

That only leaves about 11 catches for 94 yards for the rest of the skill players on the team, including receivers Xavier Legette, Jalen Coker and Jimmy Horn, Jr., tight ends J’Tavion Sanders, Tommy Tremble and Mitchell Evans, and running backs Rico Dowdle and Chuba Hubbard.

That’s eight players not named McMillan whom head coach Dave Canales is trying to incorporate into the passing game.

But with the formula for the Panthers being what it is in wins, there simply aren’t enough completions to go around for any of the skill players to gain traction or consistency. Young is -2.4% in expected completion percentage this season according to NFL NextGenStats, which is ninth worst in the NFL so far this season, which hasn’t helped.

Unless Canales and Young can find a way to get more volume and efficiency in their passing game, the numbers will continue to be futile for the Carolina Panthers passing game.

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