Bryce Young Isn't the Panthers' Biggest Question Anymore

For almost three years, every conversation about the Carolina Panthers eventually came back to the same question: Is Bryce Young good enough?

I've asked it plenty of times myself. After what we watched during his first couple of seasons, I don't think it was an unfair question. Carolina took Young No. 1 overall, and at some point, you needed to start seeing something that made you feel better about that decision.

Four games into this season, I'm starting to wonder if we've been asking the wrong question. Young has thrown for 1,268 yards, nine touchdowns, and only two interceptions. He's thrown for at least 287 yards in every game, Carolina is putting points on the board, and we're no longer spending every Monday trying to figure out what's wrong with the quarterback.

That's a pretty big change from where we were not that long ago. Young has spent most of his career trying to prove he's good enough for the Panthers. Maybe now it's time for the Panthers to show they're good enough to do something with him.

Bryce Young Has Held Up His End

I'm not going to pretend four good games erase everything that happened before this season. They don't, and there's still a lot of football left. But Young is playing really good football right now, and I don't know how else to put it.

We wanted him to push the ball downfield more, and he's doing it. We wanted him to take better care of the football, and he's doing that, too. More than anything, we wanted to see an offense that didn't look like it was scared to put the game in his hands, and we're finally getting that.

It's not like everything around him suddenly became perfect, either. Young has been pressured on nearly half of his dropbacks, and he's still putting up the best numbers of his career. That's probably what has impressed me the most.

For the longest time, I wondered what Young would look like if Carolina just gave him some help. Now Tetairoa McMillan looks like a legitimate No. 1 receiver, Chuba Hubbard is coming off a 122-yard game, Jalen Coker is back, and Darren Waller has been sneakily good. Carolina finally gave Young some guys to work with, and he's making it count.

He just looks more comfortable out there, too. Young talked recently about how much input offensive coordinator Brad Idzik gives him during the week, and I wrote about how different things seem for Young in this offense. Maybe it's the weapons, maybe it's another year in the offense, or maybe Young is simply getting better. It's probably a little bit of all of it.

Whatever the reason, it's working. For most of his career, it felt like Carolina was trying to figure out whether it could win with Young. Now he's becoming one of the biggest reasons they're winning.

Now What Are the Panthers Going to Do With It?

That's what makes Sunday in Philadelphia so interesting to me. I'm not saying beating the Eagles suddenly makes Carolina a Super Bowl contender. We're four games into the season, and nobody needs to get carried away yet.

But if you want people to start taking you seriously, these are the games you eventually have to win. Philadelphia has lost three straight, Jalen Hurts is out, and Tanner McKee will start in his place. Carolina is coming off a bye after beating Detroit 32-26, so you couldn't ask for a much better opportunity.

That's really what I want to see from Carolina now. We've spent years talking about patience, development, rebuilding, and waiting to see what Young becomes. Well, we're starting to get our answer, and now the Panthers have to do something with it.

Protect him better. Keep putting weapons around him. Give him a defense that doesn't make him feel like he has to score every time he touches the ball. When you get a chance to go on the road against a struggling team playing without its starting quarterback, take advantage of it.

That's why Sunday feels like a little more than just a chance to get to 3-2. I don't need Young to throw for 350 yards and four touchdowns to convince me he's playing well. He's already spent the first month of the season answering most of the questions I had about him.

Now I want to see what Carolina does with it.

If this version of Young is what we're going to keep seeing, the conversation around the Panthers has to change with him. For years, we kept asking whether Bryce Young was good enough for Carolina.

Maybe it's finally time to find out if Carolina is good enough for Bryce Young.