Cat Scratch Reader
Hello CSR! Welcome to Brian Answers, part two of your weekly Panthers fan mailbag for everyone! We’re back from the bye week, and all week we’ve talked about Bryce Young’s future on this website. But guess what? This season is not over! And near term Bryce Young is more important. So let’s dive in to all YOUR questions from this week!
HighMiles25: Will we follow 2025 tradition and lose to the Saints, beat the Bucs, lose to the Seahawks, and beat the Bucs?
It wouldn’t be outside the realm of possibility, honestly. The Saints seem to have figured out a solid game plan against the Panthers offense, though in this scenario the Panthers have a bit more game tape on the Tyler Shough run offense. The Buccaneers don’t seem to want to win the division, so following the rollercoaster loss-win-loss-win formula would just be uniquely Panthers.
Panther-Try: If we make the playoffs, it seems we will most likely play someone from the nfc west. Which NFC West opponent would we want to play in the playoffs?
While we haven’t yet seen the Panthers take on the Seahawks yet, my bet would actually be on them if the Panthers could somehow pull out a wild card win. My main reasoning here is that Sam Darnold seems like he might be turning into a pumpkin again, and the Panthers do have a decent group of corners in Jaycee Horn and Mike Jackson who might be able to slow down Jaxon Smith-Njigba in the passing game. The Seahawks defense is really good, so there’s not really any one particular opponent I personally prefer. One might be able to argue the 49ers in a rematch could be a better option, simply because the Panthers would have a better idea of what Kyle Shanahan and the coaches would throw at them.
KeepPounding88: How do I get over this fear that winning the division will cause us to extend Young? I know it wouldn’t happen this offseason, I just feel like it would be enough momentum to pick up his option with the expectation of eventually working on an extension.
This question got asked fairly early in the week, so you can read additional analysis by Jon here and Eric here, so I will try not to rehash too much, go check out their work and the subsequent comments.
My take is, I wouldn’t worry about the Panthers giving Bryce Young an extension barring a miraculous Super Bowl appearance. My read on Bryce is he’s not the type to push for an extension that early, and I know he’s definitely beaten himself up a lot over some of his worst performances. I think the Panthers will eventually pull the trigger on the 5th year option ahead of the deadline (which is after the NFL Draft) in 2026. But I think the expectation should be to pick up the option, give Canales and this staff another year to try and improve the overall roster, and potentially start...
