Cat Scratch Reader
It’s the obvious choice
Carolina Panthers fans are entering their team’s bye week on the crest of an unfamiliar wave: a winning streak. This is the team’s first winning streak since Week 3 of the 2021 season. To put that in context, that was five head coaches ago and Sam Darnold was the starting quarterback.
With three wins before the bye week, the Panthers are also on track to surpass their 2023 win total by yesterday. They have won no more than seven games since 2017. They could pass their win total for every season coached fully or partially by Matt Rhule, Steve Wilks, Frank Reich, or Chris Tabor by winning just five of their remaining seven games.
What’s that? You think that is a tall order when the Panthers have only beaten teams with combined 7-22 record, all of whom are expected to fire their head coaches by the end of the season, and have left on their schedule the Kansas City Chiefs, the Philadelphia Eagles, the Atlanta Falcons, and the Arizona Cardinals, all teams above .500 with a combined record of 26-10?
I’m sorry.
I thought this was a column for optimists.
Jokes aside, let’s talk about what yesterday’s win means for the team. The Panthers are next big date on their calendar is not the playoffs, but the 2025 NFL Draft. Wins like yesterday cost them draft position in a draft without top tier quarterback talent. That’s OK. The reality is that the Panthers are still vying for a top ten pick. That’s great for their roster, but where in the top ten doesn’t matter nearly as much as Dave Canales putting his stamp on this locker room and building a culture for that future top ten pick to walk into.
It’s too early yet to say that the Panthers won’t be shopping for a quarterback in 2025 or 2026, but we can definitively say that Bryce Young is at least looking better. The team’s third down efficiency was horrendous and a direct contributor to a nail-biter overtime finish against a bad Giants team that had little to no interest in being there. But it was a result largely of poor play calling, dropped balls, and occasional bad quarterbacking. That’s a huge improvement from horrible third down efficiencies in the past that were simply the result of Young being unwilling to throw past the line of scrimmage.
Instead, Young completed multiple balls at intermediate distances and had several other accurate throws dropped by rookie wide receivers. Young looked more comfortable and confident than he did in last week’s win against the New Orleans Saints. That counts as progress. It still wasn’t a good game, but it was a step forward for a young quarterback who has the rest of the season to audition for his 2025 team.
Again, better doesn’t necessarily mean good. If he can continue to progress then he could get to a place where he is playing good football by the end of the...
