Panthers Fans Serenaded Bryce Young With MVP Chants. Are They Right?

I definitely didn't have Panthers fans chanting “MVP” for Bryce Young on my list of things I expected to hear this season. But there they were Sunday night at Bank of America Stadium, and honestly, I kind of liked it.

Maybe it's too early. Actually, I know it's too early to start handing out awards after four games. But I also don't understand why that means we have to immediately dismiss what Young is doing.

He's been really good. And I don't mean good compared to what we've seen from him before, or good because expectations weren't exactly through the roof coming into the season. Young is playing really good football right now.

So when those chants started, I wasn't sitting there thinking Panthers fans had lost their minds. I was thinking maybe they're seeing the same thing the rest of us are starting to see.

This Isn't Just One Good Sunday Anymore

I think that's where my opinion has changed the most.

After Young threw for 361 yards and three touchdowns against Chicago, there was an easy reason to question it. Carolina was getting blown out, so of course the Panthers were throwing the football all over the place. I understood that argument, and I probably made some version of it myself.

Then he went to Atlanta and threw three touchdowns without an interception in a 34-3 win. A week later in Cleveland, he threw for 291 yards amid a 51% pressure rate and had them driving for a chance to tie before a late turnover.

Then Detroit comes to Charlotte for Sunday Night Football, and Young does it again. At some point, I think we have to stop looking for reasons why it doesn't count. Four games isn't a season, but it's not nothing, either.

Maybe It's Time to Talk About Bryce Young Differently

This is probably what the MVP chants made me think about more than anything.

It seems like every conversation we've had about Young since Carolina drafted him has come with something attached to it. He's too small. The offensive line isn't good enough. He doesn't have enough weapons. Carolina took the wrong quarterback. Maybe he'll eventually figure it out.

I'm kind of tired of doing that.

Why can't we just say Young looks like a really good quarterback right now? I don't think that's getting carried away anymore. Through four games, that's what he's looked like.

And Sunday night might have been the best part because he didn't have to do everything himself. Tetairoa McMillan went for 192 yards and two touchdowns, while Chuba Hubbard ran for 122 yards and a touchdown, after I spent most of the week begging Carolina to give him the football more.

Funny how that works.

Give your quarterback a running game and somebody who can make plays down the field, and suddenly everything looks a little easier. Maybe I'm making it too simple, but this looked a lot more like the offense I've been waiting to see.

So, About Those MVP Chants

I'm not putting Young at the top of an MVP ballot after four games. That's not what I'm saying, and I don't think that's really what Panthers fans were saying Sunday night, either.

They were watching their quarterback play well against a really good football team on national television. They were watching Carolina win a game not many people thought it would win. After what this fan base has watched for the last few years, I'm not going to tell them they shouldn't enjoy it.

But I also think there might be a little more to those chants than just fans having fun.

If Young has a bad game next week, I'm not suddenly throwing away what he's done through the first month. And I'm done saying, “Let's see him do it again,” every time he plays well because, well, he's doing it again.

Four weeks in a row now.

That's the part I don't want to dismiss. Maybe Young cools off, or maybe we're having a completely different conversation a month from now. We'll deal with that if it happens.

Right now, I'm going to judge what I'm actually watching, and what I'm watching is a quarterback playing some of the best football in the league.

MVP?

Ask me again in a month.

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