Not-So-Bold Prediction: Bryce Young Will Start Week 1 for the Panthers

Revealing the obvious.

They can try to hide it all they want but we all know Bryce Young is going to start in the team's season opener in Atlanta against the Falcons. 

Andy Dalton was brought in to help Young make the transition from college star to rookie starter in the NFL. He went through the process himself going from TCU to starting as a rookie with the Cincinnati Bengals. In my opinion, Dalton is there for two reasons: support and insurance. If Young were to go down with an injury or for some reason, he stinks it up for five or six games, the Panthers have a quality veteran quarterback they can turn to.

When you have an offensive line as the Panthers do, a formidable run game, solid weapons in the passing game, and a top-10 level defense, there's a lot of support for a rookie quarterback to start from the get-go. And with the way the schedule is set up, the Panthers host the Saints on Monday Night Football in Week 2 and there's no way Young won't be under center for that one. So why delay it by just a week? 

Young is already considered advanced for a rookie quarterback in terms of his processing speed and ability to retain information. Panthers QB coach Josh McCown spoke on it earlier this week.

"It's clear every time we step into a meeting with him, it's clear that he's taking the material, whatever was presented the day before, he's taking that and he's spent time with it at home. And he's digested it and he comes with questions. That's what a pro does. He's got great questions, very insightful. A lot of times well beyond what a rookie would ask, so that's encouraging. That expedites the process for us meeting-wise because we can get to some second, third, fourth level-type answers. He's doing a great job of taking the information, processing it, and this is kind of the downloading phase right now of all that information he's doing a good job of that."

The deeper we get into training camp in July, the more apparent it will become. Dalton will likely start camp with the ones but I'll set the over/under on how long that lasts at about 1.5 weeks. The Panthers didn't give up all they did just to sit the No. 1 overall pick. This is what Scott Fitterer has been building toward. He wanted to get the roster to a place where they could just drop in a young quarterback and go. Now, the Panthers can do that.

You can follow us for future coverage by liking us on Facebook & following us on Twitter:

Facebook - @PanthersOnSI

Twitter - @AllPanthers_ and Schuyler Callihan at @Callihan_