CHARLOTTE, N.C. — It’s probably the one question you’ve thought about more than any other during this Carolina Panthers offseason.

It’s the one that unlocks every other possibility. If you answer it in the affirmative, you can then move on to wondering about the carry distribution in the backfield, or the depth among the inside linebackers, or the decisions head coach Dave Canales and general manager Dan Morgan will have to make in a suddenly crowded wide receiver room.

But if you answer it in the negative, it’s all for naught.

That question:

Can Bryce Young do it again?

Can Bryce Young sustain his late-year ascension?

Just because we’re here, it’s worth reiterating: Young had a wonderful conclusion to the 2024 season. That includes really everything after the Panthers’ Week 11 bye.

What happened before the bye is well-known. The No. 1 overall pick in 2023 struggled in Weeks 1 and 2. He played understudy to Andy Dalton in Weeks 3-7. He got his chance again after a car accident left Dalton with a sprained thumb on his throwing hand, and he even led the Panthers to two wins in Week 9 and Week 10.

But it wasn’t until Week 12 when he became someone else — someone whose play has engendered the kind of hope that is giving Panthers fans a reason to think the team’s first winning season since 2017 is right ahead.

A lot of stats bear this late-season ascension out. For instance, according to Pro Football Focus, five of Young’s six games where he averaged the longest “average depth of target” came in those final seven weeks. That showed his comfortableness, his willingness to take risks, the offense’s capability for explosiveness with him at the helm. Six of Young’s highest “adjusted completion percentage” marks, too, came in those final seven weeks.

One stat explains his late resurgence most pointedly:

Young averaged a passer rating of 92.3 in his last seven games, with 1,583 passing yards, 11 touchdowns and three interceptions, according to StatMuse. That passer rating is comparable to many of the league’s second-echelon guys across those same seven weeks (Weeks 12 to 17). Take Jayden Daniels (95.3 in six games played), for instance. Or Matthew Stafford (96.25 in six games played).

This is all to say: The fact that Young was great at the end of the season is real.

But the question of whether he can sustain such momentum is still a compelling one.

A skeptical read on the situation is that Young now has substantial tape where he looks comfortable, so teams can figure out how to avoid allowing him to become comfortable. Those same skeptics, too, might say so much of Young’s success wouldn’t have come without Chuba Hubbard’s career-year production and the offensive line’s relatively steady availability.

A more optimistic read is that Young and Canales, come the final few games of the season, finally saw their relationship repaired. Trust returned. Canales got Young in space, and Young started running more — something he showed off a bunch as the scout team QB — and something promising and enduring spawned. In this offseason’s minicamp, specifically, most 11s reps had Young floating out of the pocket. A lot of flood concepts. A lot of bow concepts where Young threw players open. A lot of bootlegs.

Here’s Canales, who’s the most optimistic among anyone, on Young after minicamp earlier this month.

“The pace of our offensive evolution is growing at the pace of Bryce,” Canales said. “And he’s shown such great mastery of what we’re doing that he’s allowing us to really push the envelope and do more things.”

Comparing Bryce Young to other recent QB breakouts

Young isn’t the first quarterback faced with the question, “Can he do it again?” Here’s a snapshot of three quarterbacks and how they followed up their “breakout” year. One conclusion you could draw? Production may dwindle and turnovers may rise — but not by much.

— CJ Stroud

Drafted in 2023, Stroud had one of the best rookie seasons in NFL history. The Houston Texan followed that up with a bit of a regression, about 400 fewer passing yards, three fewer touchdowns, seven more interceptions. But with a passer rating still at 87.0 — and with another playoff win under his belt — Stroud’s sophomore slump wasn’t that much of a slump at all.

— Trevor Lawrence

Lawrence was the No. 1 overall pick by the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2021, but he didn’t have his breakout season until the year after, in 2022. Then he threw for 4,113 yards and 25 touchdowns and only notched eight interceptions en route to a playoff appearance and the Jags’ first playoff win since 2017. In 2023, he had similar numbers: 4,016 yards, 21 TDs — but 14 INTs.

— Jordan Love

Love inherited the starting role in Green Bay in 2023 and soared immediately: 4,159 yards, 32 touchdowns, 11 interceptions. That essentially stayed consistent in 2024 — his passer rating actually increased from 96.1 to 96.7. His production decreased in yards and touchdowns, and his interception total remained the same, but it’s worth noting he only played in 15 games because of injury in 2024.

The Panthers’ quarterback depth chart

— Projected starter: Bryce Young.

— Projected backup: Andy Dalton.

— Competition: Jack Plummer vs. Ethan Garbers. Dalton signed a two-year agreement with the team this offseason, extending his goal of playing when he’s 40 but also the Panthers’ plan to keep him as a veteran backup. So that leaves the third quarterback slot open for competition. Canales kept Plummer on the practice squad for pretty much the entire 2024 season, save one game late in the year, and only spoke highly of him. Plummer and Garbers split reserve reps pretty equally in camp; expect both to get equal opportunities in the team’s three preseason games.

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