Young, Panthers ‘in a tough place’ after sixth loss

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Carolina Panthers rookie quarterback Bryce Young seemed to take Sunday’s 42-21 loss to the Miami Dolphins harder than any of the others, as the NFL’s only winless team heads into its bye week.

The top pick of the 2023 NFL draft didn’t look at being up 14-0 in the first quarter as a “consolation prize” for a team off to its worst start since the 1998 Panthers opened 0-7.

He didn’t seem pleased that he had no turnovers for the first time in his five starts.

“We’re all competitors,” said Young, who is 0-5 as the starter, missing the Week 3 loss at Seattle with an ankle injury. “It builds up. It sucks where we at. … Again it’s fresh and it’s not where we want to be.

“We’re in a tough place and it’s difficult but there is no locker room, no group, I would rather be here with, no group that I have more confidence in to dig ourselves out of this.”

Young, who was 23-4 as the starter at Alabama, is in pretty good company when it comes to quarterbacks who were top picks and got off to at least an 0-5 start. Of the quarterbacks drafted No. 1 since 1967, he’s now the eighth.

Troy Aikman started 0-11 for the Dallas Cowboys, Jared Goff 0-7 for the Los Angeles Rams, Eli Manning 0-6 for the New York Giants, Tim Couch 0-6 for the Cleveland Browns, Alex Smith 0-5 for San Francisco 49ers, Trevor Lawrence 0-5 for the Jacksonville Jaguars and Vinny Testaverde 0-5 for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Aikman went on to become a three-time Super Bowl champion and Pro Football Hall of Famer. Manning became a two-time Super Bowl champion and Super Bowl MVP.

Young is a long way from that, but Carolina outside linebacker Brian Burns couldn’t say enough about the way Young has handled the beginning of this season because of his maturity.

“I don’t think any other rookie could handle it like he’s been handling it,” he said. “Things may not be going his way, especially during the game, but he continues to keep his voice and keep being a leader at such an early point in his career.”

Veteran wide receiver Adam Thielen, who caught 11 passes for 115 yards and a touchdown on Sunday, agreed.

“He’s exactly who you would want in your locker room despite the record,” he said. “The way that he approaches the game, the way that he handles himself, the way he just continues to try to get better and tries to make people around him better.

“He’s the right guy for us and we’re excited about going back to work and continue to get on the same page.”

Young had arguably his best game as a pro at Hard Rock Stadium. He completed 23 of 38 pass attempts for 217 yards and a touchdown for a QBR of 47.4.

He still ranks last in the league in QBR at 31.6, but Sunday’s effort raised that from 29.7 in his first four starts.

Young didn’t take much solace from his fast start in which he completed eight of his first nine attempts to temporarily shock the home crowd.

“It’s good to jump out to an early lead but we see what the scoreboard finished with, so it’s not a consolation prize,” he said. “We have to be able to sustain it. I think it showed what we’re capable of and there is positive there and we have to find way to keep building on that and keep improving and then cut out the bad that came.”

Miami quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who passed for 262 yards and three touchdowns, tried to offer his fellow Alabama product words of encouragement afterward.

“I felt like if I was on the other side of the ball I would want someone to tell me,” said Tagovailoa, whose accomplishments at Alabama are why Young attended college there. “He’s doing a tremendous job.

“I just told him the press, the naysayers, other people, that’s just external factors. They’re going to say what they’re going to say but you continue to believe in yourself, you continue to do the right things, you’re going to go far.”

Carolina coach Frank Reich said Young has gotten better every week.

“I really like the direction that he’s going,” he said. “The offense overall has to be better, but here are some positive things there.”

Reich believes the bye comes at a good time for Young and the team to reset and get healthy. Running back/wide receiver Laviska Shenault Jr. was added to a long injury list Sunday with a right fibula injury that had him on crutches and in a walking boot after the game.

Shenault played a role in helping the offense start to develop an identity Sunday that it hadn’t had before with balance in the run and pass game.

Again, Young wasn’t satisfied.

“We have to earn the right to make it consistent,” he said. “We have to earn the right to make sure that’s not a flash, it’s not a good couple series. You have to earn the right to make that be who we are and make that be our identity.”

Thielen, for one, is glad to hear Young becoming a more vocal and emotional leader.

“You don’t really see a person’s true colors until they’re going through some adversity,” he said. “So for him to handle the adversity our team is going through the way he has, man, those are the guys you want to fight for, those are the guys you want to play with and those are the guys that are going to have success in the future.”