Bryce Young did not make the kind of splash the Panthers hoped to see after trading a lot to the Bears in order to select the quarterback with the first overall pick last year.
The Panthers were shut out in the final two weeks of the season and the 2-15 team finished the year 31st in points scored and 32nd in yards. They won’t be able to use the first overall pick this year to help improve the offense because they dealt it to Chicago and that means the new coaching staff will need to find other ways to help make Young’s second season better than his first.
Veteran tight end Hayden Hurst thinks one way to help will be to limit the number of voices in Young’s head.
“I think there’s just too many opinions and you’re kind of looking for the right answer from everybody. Too much input, which sucks for Bryce,” Hurst said, via the team’s website. “I think he kind of had a lot of people in his ear telling him one thing. When you’re a 21-year-old kid, you think that is gonna be consistent in the NFL. And unfortunately for him, I think maybe he was listening too many people. So it’ll be a good off season for him, again, just to kind of get back to his roots.”
Young said he appreciated Hurst’s comments, but thinks that having more voices in your ear than in college is part of life as an NFL quarterback because “everyone’s involved, everyone’s invested and I don’t feel like it was too much.” In Year Two, Young and the Panthers will need to make sure that the right voices are getting through because better results are needed for anyone to feel good about the path the team is on.