Reich Evaluates Bryce Young's Debut & Discusses Plan for Remainder of Preseason

It wasn't a great day for the Panthers' offense, but the rookie QB isn't at fault.

Bryce Young did what he could in his preseason debut with the Carolina Panthers. He completed 4-of-6 pass attempts for 21 yards despite having pressure in his face during all three of his drives. 

Right guard Michael Jordan allowed a sack and left tackle Ikem Ekwonu allowed two QB hits, the first of which was a big one by Solomon Thomas. The defensive front threw a twist at Ekwonu and Brady Christensen and Thomas squeezed right through the middle of them to put a big lick on the rookie.

first Welcome to the NFL hit for Bryce Young 😳 pic.twitter.com/8NCsi9f7kc

— dingg (@official_ding) August 12, 2023

"Obviously, we had a little too much pressure at times," said head coach Frank Reich. "Bryce was accurate. He got rid of the ball quickly. There is some good in having to try to overcome some bad field position which we did not do. We got our second drive. We are backed up there pretty much. Those are great situations. We talk about this all the time. Let’s get the tough situations and put ourselves to the test. We had a couple of those today. We didn’t pass those tests but those are good to learn from."

Reich said that ideally Young would have had just two drives but with that second possession beginning at their own two, they wanted to give him one more crack at it. The offense went three and out and the sack by Quinton Jefferson would end the day for Young.

"He is going to get hit. Now listen, in this game, there was a plan. Everything was pretty much get it out quick throw. The biggest hit that he took was, on one, he worked through his progression, got a completion on the back side. We had a nice little completion but had to work through the progression and got hit. Like I said, the two sacks were, we will see it on the tape, but it felt a little bit like they were coverage sacks. Nothing popped early. The pocket just kind of squeezed but I have to go back and look at the tape."

If the o-line protected better and receivers got separation earlier in their respective routes, Young could have potentially done enough for the coaching staff to say, "Alright, that's enough," and hold him out of the final two preseason games. But because of the lack of opportunity to really piece together a drive, one would assume that he'll get some snaps in Friday's game against the New York Giants. 

That plan, however, has yet to be finalized.

"We will take it game by game," said Reich. "I don’t want to over-commit to that. What we’ve talked about as a team, we need to do what it takes to get ready for our season opener. We are committed as coaches and players to doing whatever we think that is. If that’s playing a lot, then we will play a lot. If we feel like, nope, we are good, we don’t want to show anything, we feel confident in what we’ve been doing day to day in practice and we want to try to save guys, then we will make that decision. But right now, we’ve sent the message as coaches and players to be ready to play and if we feel like it’s the right thing to play a lot, we will play a lot. If we feel like we need to kind of sit back, we will do that. I respect the players because they are all bought into that. They are trusting that process and trusting us as a coaching staff to say, ok, let’s get ready, the goal is to get ready for Atlanta and get ready for the regular season. Everything we are doing is geared around that."

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