The Carolina Panthers brought in Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator Dave Canales as their head coach for the 2024 NFL season with quarterback Bryce Young in mind.
In the 2023 NFL Draft, the Panthers used the No. 1 pick on Young. But Carolina went 2-15 in the former Alabama All-American’s first NFL season, and the rookie signal-caller posted the league’s worst passing-efficiency rating operating an offense largely devoid of chunk plays.
With the Panthers concluding their offseason program last week, Canales said Young has come a long way with “the comfort and familiarity with our plays.”
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“Today was, by far, his best day just operating the offense,” Canales said after Tuesday’s practice. “The execution of the plays, defense makes plays, too. But as far as like getting out of the huddle, getting to the line of scrimmage, moving the shifts and motions, using the cadence, figuring problems out with the protections, this was a fantastic day for Bryce in understanding what we’re trying to get done.”
Andy Dalton served as Young’s backup last season, and the three-time Pro Bowler is back for his 14th NFL campaign. Dalton is expecting a much better performance from Young and the Carolina offense this season.
“There’s so many things that he can do,” Dalton said. “He’s crazy-talented. The biggest jump that you take is from Year 1 to Year 2, and Bryce is going to experience that. We’re going to see Bryce do things that he didn’t do last year, just because of the experience. We’re already seeing it right now. This was all new to him last year. It was his first OTAs. Now he’s back in here, you can tell how much more comfortable he is right now than he was last year.”
On the final day of the Panthers’ offseason program, Young said he had seen improvement over the past two months.
“I’m super proud of how well as an offense we’ve adapted,” Young said. “It’s been great working with the new staff. And then you start to see the ins and outs, we start to form our own identity and just the way we’ve come together. I think we’re really hungry. We have a lot we want to improve at, we want to get better at, and we kind of all have that buy-in, we all have that chip on our shoulder, so super excited about the process we have.”
Last season, Carolina scored the fewest points and gained the fewest yards in the NFL. Four teams had more than twice as many offensive snaps as the Panthers, who averaged a league-low 4.1 yards per play. Carolina had 31 completions that gained at least 20 yards in 2023, the fewest in the NFL, while sacks of the Panthers quarterback cost Carolina 504 yards, the most in the league.
The Panthers will have a different identity on offense in 2024, Young said.
“I think we’re an attacking offense,” Young said, “an offense that wants to do whatever the defense gives. But we want to make sure we can run the ball. Coach has said that a ton. That’s what we talk about. We know we’re going to establish the run game, and we’re going to play off of that.
“We’re going to be multiple and be able to week-by-week go in and find what we feel like we can attack on the defensive side, but do it in ways that we specialize in. And so I think we’re still growing and getting better at perfecting ourselves.”
Carolina returns the two running backs who had more than 75 rushing yards for the Panthers last season – Chuba Hubbard, who had 902 yards and five touchdowns on 238 carries, and Miles Sanders, who had 432 yards and one touchdown on 129 carries.
Carolina also used a second-round pick in the 2024 NFL Draft to obtain running back Jonathon Brooks, who had 1,139 yards and 10 touchdowns on 187 rushing attempts for Texas last season.
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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.