Our Take
How much playing time should Bryce Young get in the preseason?
Bryce Young has been named QB1 for the Carolina Panthers at the start of training camp, but how much time should he get in the preseason games? WRAL Triangle and Two co-hosts Mark Bergin and Louis Fernandez discuss.
Uh, so Bryce Young for the Carolina Panthers has officially been named quarterback one which it always just seemed kind of like, you know, of course, he is like, I respect, I respect to Andy Dalton. I think Andy Dolan is gonna be a great, uh, backup of and a great mentor for, um, you know, you know, I love, he said, Andy Dalton, he's gonna be a great mentor for Bryce Young, but Bryce Young is the guy now. Um, so the question that we are proposing to the viewers, the question that I'm proposing to you, Mark began is how much playing time should Bryce Young get in the preseason? I think he should play however long the starters play in game two because remember there are now three season, three preseason games, not four as they traditionally were, we have 17 game regular season now. So however long the starters are playing in the second game, which is when most of the starters traditionally play. That's how long I keep Bryce Young out there for, I don't even know if he should play in that first game against the Jets on August the 12th. Like if his starters aren't out there. What I care about is what is his rapport with his linemen with his skill position players? If those players aren't out there, I expect him to be like, yes, the NFL speeds faster than college, that's not a news flash, but is the number one pick. If he's not developing a rapport with the players, he's actually going to play with, what's the point? And so the reason I say this, you don't want to get him injured, you know, we know all about his size concerns coming into the league. Uh If I'm Frank Wright and company and the Panthers, I might not even play him in the first game depending on who else that's going to be a starter come week one against Atlanta. That's kind of how I gauged that. But the reason I was laughing though Lewis, you mentioned Andy Dalton, Bryce Young and QB one, I think about that Great Bears Tweet where they deemed Andy Dalton QB one before Chicago ended up drafting Justin Field. So that's, uh a glimpse into the brilliant mind that is Mark Bur, you know, you know, you know, I, you know, I love Andy Dalton. Um No, I think so. So I, I think it's all about context with Bryce Young. They're gonna be holding that joint practice session with the New York Jets, which I think will essentially be worth more than a preseason game would be for Bryce Young. So you have that. I know. I do. Yeah, absolutely. Because you're going, that's probably gonna be good against good. Um, so I, I think that's worth more than a preseason game would be for, for Bryce Young. Uh, so you have that in your back pocket. Uh, I think there's kind of a, a balancing act between playing too much in the preseason versus playing not enough. Um, because you, especially when you have a group like the Panthers that are so new to each other, you have some carryover. So some people who are still there from last year, especially on the offensive line, but you know, new coaching staff, new scheme, uh, so many new skill position players, you know, the list just goes on DJ shark and feeling Hayde hurst Miles Sanders, all of their roster. It so, so much. Yeah. Yeah. So you want them to get into rhythm, you want them to get comfortable but you don't want to risk them to injury. Uh Yeah, I think game two, a couple of series, maybe a quarter, Maxx. And can I say this to Lewis for people that are watching the preseason? And I can't wait to watch because, you know, we've got pickle ball on ESPN right now. There's no trash pickleball. Ok. Ok. But that's fine. It's like a war reenactment. And this is an analogy my, my guide Dave Damask has used, don't take away too much from the preseason because it looks like the real thing, it feels like the real thing. It has no bearing on how the regular season will play out. Zero. And part of this too is even if Bryce Young lights it up, maybe if he looks bad, maybe you take away something from that because the opposing defenses are playing very, very vanilla schemes. So what I mean by this is they're gonna be playing their base 43 defense, they'll play at their base 34 defense. You don't expect a lot of blitz packages, stunts, things that are a little bit more exotic that can confuse a quarterback of something that a defensive coordinator is going to save for the regular season when the games actually matter. So it's more so, hey, let's go out there in, you know, very traditional setups both offensively and defensively and just kind of see what you can do 11 on 11. It's not like they're gonna scheme. It's not like you're going to game plan for an opposing team all that much during the preseason because the both teams are trying to figure out, ok, who are the guys on the back half that are trying to make the 53 man roster? Yes. Well, and some of it too is, you know, this, they're professionals, right? So this isn't as big of a problem. Maybe it, it helps you out a little bit in like a first game type thing, but this is a new offense for the Panthers. Um, there are gonna be tape that coaches can review on what, like, you know, the, what their offense might look like, but they're not going to know for sure. So you don't want to put too much out there, um, at this point in time, I, I, you know, that's, I think that's, that's a fair kind of presumption that the coaching staff, you know, how football coaches are, they always, they always think that they have like national secrets and they have to be careful not to re review too much information. Uh, so I'm gonna do a full podcast where I hold my notes right in front of my face. You can actually see what, what it is that I'm saying. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Uh, so, yeah, I don't know. That's just kind of how I view, uh, what the Panthers got going on. They're gonna be ok, but, you know, given a little bit of time. Um, II, I still think they're gonna take away a lot more from that practice against the Jets than they will in the preseason. That's, that's fascinating to me because I mean, that's the one thing you can't replicate is the game speed, but again, don't take away too much from any of this because like, I think there's already enough over analysis as is from week to week during the regular season preseason. It's just like, forget about it. Lewis