Is Bryce Young finally showing signs of life?

It took 27 games, but for the first time in his career, Bryce Young has an NFL winning streak.

Young, elevated back to the Carolina Panthers’ starting lineup after Andy Dalton suffered a minor injury in a car accident, is in the midst of his finest stretch as a pro. With three wins, his Panthers have already exceeded their 2023 total.

This all gestures broadly to the subterranean expectations in Carolina right now. But it also brings up an important question. Is Young, the first overall pick of the 2023 NFL Draft, actually good?

Young has had moments of capability in the past. As a rookie he alternated positive and negative performances early in the season, culminating with a win over the Houston Texans where he did enough to beat C.J. Stroud, the franchise quarterback drafted one spot after him. In Weeks 15 and 16 he beat the Atlanta Falcons and narrowly lost to the Green Bay Packers, shining in particular against now-deposed Green Bay defensive coordinator Joe Barry.

But Young had never strung together back-to-back games with a positive expected points added (EPA). He still hasn’t, even in his two-week win streak.

While he dispatched the New York Giants and New Orleans Saints, he didn’t exactly shine. He needed 26 passes to throw for only 171 yards in Week 9. In Munich, Germany he dropped back 26 times for 118 net passing yards. Only one Panther had more than 41 receiving yards in either of those wins — rookie tight end Ja’Tavion Sanders.

1st TD in the NFL and overseas
: NFL Network pic.twitter.com/hsMScVsSyo

— Carolina Panthers (@Panthers) November 10, 2024

That was a slick touchdown pass, built from pressure and improvised to perfection. That’s the guy the Panthers wanted when they drafted Young; a quarterback whose skill manifested in an unquantifiable ability to rise up to the moment. Let’s flip through some of his bigger throws of the afternoon and see if that trait lingered or disappeared once again.

Let’s talk about Young’s good throws

Here, Young helps his cause with a huge pickup on third-and-long late in the fourth quarter protecting a three-point lead. But while it shows up as a positive on the box score it’s not all encouraging.

Bryce Young got the big third down conversion here but, uh, didn't quite exude confidence in the pocket with this one pic.twitter.com/mw276U2zOj

— Christian D'Andrea (@TrainIsland) November 10, 2024

Young floats this sideline route, not stepping all the way into this long toss thanks to pressure coming up the gut that forces him to jump backward. The low velocity allows Dane Belton to close the gap between him and Xavier Legette and nearly erase the gain.

That’s a conglomeration of the two concerns that followed him to the NFL — his size to play through static in the pocket and the arm strength to flick passes deep (or, in this case, deep-ish) to the sideline. But it worked, so it’s tough to nitpick too thoroughly.

Let’s look at another intermediate completion that saw Young elevate a rookie wideout. This time, it’s undrafted free agent Jalen Coker:

What a catch by the rookie
: NFL Network pic.twitter.com/HvAkChF6zV

— Carolina Panthers (@Panthers) November 10, 2024

With time to set his feet, Young still gives us a little tap dance before unleashing a dart over the middle. It’s slightly off target but still in Coker’s range for a 24-yard gain that moved Carolina out of the shadow of its end zone en route to a field goal and an early 10-0 lead. These are all plays that can be worked around; imperfect but promising. This wasn’t all Sunday had in store for the second-year quarterback.

Young completed only four of his nine passes that traveled at least 10 yards downfield. That pass to Coker above was one of 10 that he threw to his left and beyond the line of scrimmage. He completed two of them.

Let’s talk about Young’s bad throws

Here’s one of those misses. On third-and-4 Dexter Lawrence’s pressure up the gut creates problems in the pocket. Young takes the ball from a shotgun snap and takes roughly seven steps straight backward. He’s unable to step into his throw and short-arms a pass to Coker, forcing a punt:

There are extenuating circumstances at play, from Lawrence’s rush to decent enough coverage to the fact head coach Dave Canales drew up a play with several long-developing routes knowing Lawrence has feasted this season. But Young gets caught up in the static around him, narrows his field of vision and cannot execute.

Here’s another third down target downfield for Coker. Young sees his young wideout in single coverage and makes the correct choice. But pressure forces him to put on his dancing shoes and he’s nearly hopping while throwing this ball from the pocket. This, with an assist from what maaaaaay have been some uncalled defensive holding, leads to an overthrow and gives New York the chance to rally late in a three-point game.

None of this is especially surprising. Young is completing 66 percent of his passes with a clean pocket and 42 percent when pressured, per NFL Pro. He can be a solid improvisor, but he’s been unable to rise up and be better than the chaos around him.

There’s no reason to pull him from the lineup. Andy Dalton remains very much Andy Dalton and Young supplies plays to inspire brief moments of hope. Even so, the issues that plagued him pre-benching remain.

He’s anxious in the pocket, struggles to set his feet and doesn’t do a great job of creating space behind the line of scrimmage in a way that opens up his passing game. Young’s time to throw under pressure goes up to 3.67 seconds per dropback compared to 2.38 when he’s clean, but his passer rating dips from 66.9 to 55.2 in these situations.

Young gets a bye week to soak up these good vibes and churn more tape, figuring out ways to find the room to plant his feet and drive big throws downfield. The next two teams he’s scheduled to face are the Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, two teams that rank 19th and 18th in defensive pressure rate this season, respectively. It’s possible Young continues to look “not bad” out there.

He’s also not fixed. Canales still has a lot of work ahead of him to turn his former franchise quarterback into a current or future one. For now, Young owns his first-ever winning streak. He hasn’t been especially impressive, but he’s been efficient enough to beat bad opponents. If nothing else, that’s progress.