Carolina Panthers reasons for optimism going into the 2024 NFL season

The current Carolina Panthers are not good, but that doesn't mean they can't get better

CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA - JUNE 04: Head coach Dave Canales of the Carolina Panthers attends Carolina Panthers OTA Offseason Workout on June 04, 2024 in Charlotte, North Carolina. / (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)

We won't lie to you. The 2024 Carolina Panthers are most likely not going to be a good football team, at least by NFL standards. Winners of just 24 games over the last five seasons, mediocrity would come as an improvement over the average performance Carolina fans have been witness to since the final season of the Ron Rivera era.

However, by no means do these particular Panthers need to be burdened by this franchise's recent past. There are several young and gifted playmakers on this roster, and under the guidance of a new head coach, they have a chance to hit the reset button and at least start building something positive this season to inspire some hope for the future.

In that spirit, here are four reasons for optimism for the Panthers going into the 2024 campaign.

1. Bryce is still Young

It is entirely possible for this Panthers team to progress in a meaningful way this year after winning just two games last season. That said, any potential improvement will have to include second-year quarterback Bryce Young taking an immense leap forward in his development. If he doesn't, it won't matter how much better the rest of the roster gets.

Young's results as a rookie were not pretty. He went 2-14 as a starter, completed less than 60% of his passes, only threw one more touchdown pass (11) than interceptions (10) and finished the year with a 73.7 passer rating and a QBR of 33.4. For an encore, he took 62 sacks and fumbled 11 times. These are brutal numbers, especially compared with those of Houston's number two overall pick C.J. Stroud, who had the best rookie season of any QB at least since Cam Newton.

The good news is that Young is still only 23 years old and he's not the first rookie to struggle his first year in the NFL. If you'll recall, Peyton Manning threw more picks than touchdowns as a rookie and he turned out alright Rookie seasons like Stroud and Newton's are exceptionally rare, even for top-two overall draft picks. Young's floundering was rough, but we have seen far worse and he still has plenty of physical gifts to grow on. He wasn't a number one overall pick for no reason.

It's getting rare for NFL teams to give young quarterbacks time to develop, but those with the talent to do so do can break through. Josh Allen was absolutely abysmal his first two years in the league and now he's an MVP candidate every year. The lesson is, be patient and sometimes a young QB who you think is horrible could end up surprising you.

2. Dave Canales might be a QB whisperer

History says that new head coach Dave Canales will get blamed when this team wins less than six games and he'll get fired by team owner David Tepper. However, history doesn't necessarily have to repeat itself. Canales represents a new chapter and an opportunity for this franchise to once again attempt to turn the page and become relevant again.

The reason that the Panthers hired Canales is that he's had success in his last couple of stops building up quarterbacks that may have been written off or plagued by inconsistency. Last season he got the best version of Baker Mayfield, who had his best production since the 2020 season and earned his first career trip to the Pro Bowl.

Before he was Tampa's offensive coordinator Canales helped a couple of other quarterbacks improve their games. He came highly recommended for that job based on the strength of the work he did with the Seahawks under Pete Carroll. First he served as their wide receivers coach for eight seasons, followed by quarterbacks coach/passing game coordinatoe from 2018-2022.

During that last year in Seattle Canales got a lot of credit for helping create the new-and-improved version of Geno Smith. After backing up other quarterbacks for seven seasons, Smith came out of the gate in 2022 and showed he'd vastly improved his game - and now he operates at a fringe top-10 level among NFL starters. Drew Lock also showed some improvement and extra moxy last season in the two starts Smith missed due to a minor injury. That's why he may end up pushing Daniel Jones for the Giants' job by the end of this season.

A lot goes into winning or losing any one game, but if Canales can pull off a similar improvement with Young, it will vastly change this team's possibilities.

3. Jonathon Brooks and Xavier Legette are legit

As far as new faces to get excited about, the Panthers brought in two very talented offensive skill players with their top two picks. At the end of Round 1, they took South Carolina wide receiver Xavier Legette, who may be a local favorite but is also one of the top wide receivers in a very deep group. Legette should give a serious instant boost to a wide receiver corps that might have been the worst in the NFL on paper without him.

Next, they picked former Texas running back Jonathon Brooks, who was the consensus top running back prospect in the 2024 NFL draft class. Brooks is currently out with the ACL tear that he suffered against TCU in November, but Canales says he should be joining the lineup sometime around Week 3 or Week 4. Once he's up to speed it will only be a matter of time before he passes Miles Sanders and Chuba Hubbard on the depth chart and takes over Carolina's run game. When he does, Panthers fans are going to like what they see.

4. The defense is better than you think

Last year Carolina's defense was far from elite. While they allowed the fourth fewest yards per game they also managed to give up 24.5 points per contest, the fourth most in the league. You can lay a good bit of that blame on a sputtering offense, and if Young, Canales, Legette and Brooks can get that side of the ball going then this defensive unit won't have to lift quite so much weight.

The truth is there are excellent pieces at all three levels of this defense .Derrick Brown is a game-wrecker up front, Shaq Thompson is still going strong in the middle and they have a hidden star on the back end, assuming Jaycee Horn can finally stay healthy. So far he's only been on the field for 22 out of a possible 51 games since he was drafted.

Carolina kept defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero around for a reason. They know he wasn't responsible for the results last season and it usually takes at least two seasons for a coordinator's scheme to really take effect - especially on defense. For example, last year Mike Macdonald took what had been a decent Ravens defense in his first year into the most dominant unit in the game by far.

Evero probably won't be able to engineer that kind of improvement, but if the key pieces stay healthy and the players buy in to what he's teaching this should be a far better unit than the numbers last year might suggest that they were.

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