Panthers' Young Struggles as QB - Time for a Change?
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00:00 [MUSIC]
00:03 We thought maybe the rookie of the year in the National Football League could be
00:06 the guy who was taken at the top in Bryce Young.
00:09 That has definitely not been the case.
00:10 In a very winnable game yesterday, Warren, look,
00:14 I don't wanna say the kid gave the game away, but my gosh,
00:17 they had so many chances against the Indianapolis Colts.
00:20 The Colts' defense is not good, and they were just picking this kid off left and
00:24 right at the beginning of the game, at the end of the game.
00:27 So I don't know, I think Carolina's gotta just ride this out, Warren.
00:33 But we've seen situations like this happen before, where after a few struggles,
00:37 they end up giving them the clipboard and giving them a couple games off.
00:40 You think that the Panthers are gonna do that with Bryce Young,
00:42 or they just ride it out the rest of the year?
00:44 >> Well, I don't know, I don't have the pay grade to try to figure out what I
00:51 think Frank Reich will do there, that's a difficult decision.
00:55 I'm sure a lot of factors go into it, including how he's feeling and
00:59 what they see behind the scenes as well as on the field.
01:03 But what I saw on the field yesterday was a perplexing strategy where they threw
01:07 a ridiculously high amount, 31% of the targets went to running backs,
01:11 that was the most in the NFL.
01:12 Only 36% of targets went to wide receivers in that last game.
01:16 And you're looking at Bryce Young struggling, and they're going up against
01:20 a team in the Indianapolis Colts, whose defense ranks 27 entering the game
01:24 against wide receiver passes, so they were bad.
01:27 They ranked number nine against running back passes, so
01:30 their strength was to defend running back passes.
01:32 Their weakness was to defend wide receiver passes, and
01:35 you come up with a strategy where you're not even throwing the ball to Adam Thielen
01:38 for the entire first half of the game.
01:40 Trying to get your quarterback settled in and
01:42 comfortable against this team that was giving them a lot of pressure,
01:46 a lot of problems, sacking him a ton.
01:48 I did not understand from Frank Reich and Thomas Davis,
01:52 their new offensive coordinator,
01:55 the strategy that the Carolina Panthers were trying to utilize in this one.
01:59 Those running back passes ranked worst in the NFL.
02:03 So not only were they doing them, they never switched to stop doing them, and
02:07 they provided the least efficiency of anything.
02:09 And you're absolutely right, when you see a quarterback like Bryce Young
02:13 have a day like this where he's throwing multiple pick sixes,
02:15 that completely cost the team the game.
02:17 I mean, the defense played a good game.
02:19 You take away those two pick sixes,
02:21 this is a tie game, this is a coin flip game.
02:23 You cannot afford to throw those.
02:26 And you see on the other side, you got a guy like CJ Stroud,
02:30 who throws five touch on, sets the rookie passing record, drives his team in a comeback
02:34 win, throwing that touchdown late in the game.
02:37 And you've got Bryce Young on the other side, who you drafted higher and
02:40 you traded picks for, and he's the one throwing multiple game losing
02:45 interceptions, you say you can't blame it all on him, I say we can.
02:47 I say that was a loss solely on Bryce Young's shoulders.
02:51 Now coaching played a part in it in my opinion, but
02:53 it's just not a very good situation right now in Carolina.
02:56 And we see that every single week, and it seems to continue to get worse.
02:59 Last week was like a bright light where they got that win and
03:03 they maybe thought they were turning the corner.
03:04 But the game plan for the game yesterday stunk and
03:07 the quarterback performance stunk as well.
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