Cat Scratch Reader
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: The Carolina Panthers and the Miami Dolphins walked into a bar, but neither of them cleared it because they were both bad teams. While we wait to hear of Mike McDaniels is losing his job for losing to Bryce Young, let’s make one thing clear across the Panthers fandom:
Yesterday was every kind of fun we’ve been hoping for this season.
The Panthers aren’t going to be good this season, but maybe they can be fun sometimes. That’s a heck of a lot better than they’ve been in years.
A bunch of rookies yesterday stepped up and made us all think that there is something to this new scouting and analytics staff that Dan Morgan has assembled. That means hope not just for the current roster but also for the current roster building process.
Maybe every leader isn’t going to be a long term answer for this franchise, but maybe we don’t have to hate every second of this season while pining for better days. That feels just a little bit better if we also have hope for the future.
After last week, that’s a very optimistic take on the season.
Yes, Young was bad. Yes, he probably puts a ceiling on how competitive the Panthers can be while he is under center. His two turnovers in the first half were inexcusable and embarrassing. But we also have to acknowledge that he was part of the team coming back. He made as many impressive throws as he did bone-headed decisions. There is more late career Jake Delhomme in the kid than we were led to believe.
The Dolphins scored 14 of their 24 points off of two maddening Young turnovers, including a fumble that was panic-induced and had nothing to do with contact from an opposing defender. The first twenty or so minutes of the game looked like we were going to be watching peak Bad Bryce. Then he pulled it together. He was efficient and careful, if not exactly amazing. That was enough for the Panthers to dig themselves out of a 17-0 hole and ultimately win the game. Young hasn’t shown much this season, but that’s not nothing either.
Whether or not Young is here next year may depend more on the Panthers draft position and evaluation of the 2026 crop of quarterbacks than on anything else he does on the field this season. I’m just glad to know that the Magic 8 ball he shakes before every snap does have some good results that can show up. I’ll take it for now.
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