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Promising debut for Panthers' Bryce Young to Tetairoa McMillan connection

The rapport between the Carolina Panthers’ emerging quarterback and the team’s first-round pick in April was on display early on Friday night vs. the Browns.
Russell Baxter|
Aug 8, 2025; Charlotte, North Carolina, USA; Carolina Panthers quarterback Bryce Young (9) checks the play during the second quarter against the Cleveland Browns at Bank of America Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Scott Kinser-The USAToday Network via Imagn Images
Aug 8, 2025; Charlotte, North Carolina, USA; Carolina Panthers quarterback Bryce Young (9) checks the play during the second quarter against the Cleveland Browns at Bank of America Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Scott Kinser-The USAToday Network via Imagn Images | Scott Kinser-The USAToday Network via Imagn Images

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Carolina Panthers

The Cleveland Browns wound up defeating the Carolina Panthers, 30-10, on Friday night in Charlotte. The headliner in the game was much-discussed Browns’ rookie quarterback Shedeur Sanders, who threw for 138 yards and two scores in his team’s win. When it came to Dave Canales’s club, the news when it came to his offense was highlighted by what hopefully emerges into a potent passing combination.

“Following a three-and-out to start Friday,” explained NFL.com’s Grant Gordon, “Bryce Young and Carolina’s first-teamers put together some reason for excitement for the season ahead. The 2023 No. 1 overall pick led off the second drive with a pretty go-ball to 2025 first-round pick Tetairoa McMillan for 30 yards. In a snapshot, it’s what Carolina is hoping to see for autumns to come."

Bryce Young to Tetairoa McMillan was an big hit on Friday night

“Young,” added Gordon, “who finished his two-drive outing 4-of-6 for 58 yards, found McMillan again for 13 yards to move the chains and on second-and-goal looked for him again. Young was pinpoint on the throw, but McMillan didn’t get his head around quick enough and the sure TD went off his hands. On the ensuing play, Young scrambled and waved Jalen Coker open for a five-yard score.

"The precision exemplified on the Young-led second drive, a nine-play, 73-yard march, was exactly what the Panthers offense is hoping to look like when the games count in the standings. It showcased the potential of McMillan and the ascending, confident version of Young.”

The latter showed what he was capable of in the final 10 games of 2024, throwing for 2,104 yards and 15 scores (6 interceptions) and running for 223 yards and five touchdowns. Meanwhile, the eighth overall pick in April’s draft is hoping to have enormous impact on an aerial attack that ranked 30th in the league in yards per game this past season. The Panthers were the only team in the league in 2024 that didn’t have at least one player catch at least 50 passes.

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Russell Baxter
RUSSELL BAXTER

Russell S. Baxter has been writing and researching the game of football for more than 40 years, and on numerous platforms. That includes television, as he spent more than two decades at ESPN, and was part of shows that garnered five Emmy Awards. He also spent the 2015 NFL season with Thursday Night Football on CBS/NFLN.