Bryce Young has been in the NFL for three seasons, but the jury is still out on the Carolina Panthers quarterback.
But entering his fourth season in the league, Young is enjoying the full support of Carolina head coach Dave Canales, who left no doubt about his stance on the former Alabama Crimson Tide quarterback during an interview with Stephen A. Smith on SiriusXM.
“He is right now,” Canales told Smith. “He’s our guy — he’s our guy, and I love the trajectory that he’s on.
And not just the stuff that he’s growing in — from just an operational standpoint, moving the offense, finding chemistry and all that stuff — but it’s also just the critical moments, you know? It’s those games, it’s the close games, it’s the one-score game at the end.
The 2026 season is a crucial one for Young, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft.
Carolina hasn’t given him a contract extension yet, but the team picked up its $25.9 million fifth-year option, which would cover his 2027 campaign.
If Young is to land a massive new deal with the Panthers, he’ll have to at least sustain the momentum he built in 2025, when he posted career highs of 3,011 passing yards and 23 touchdowns, while completing 63.6% of his passes.
