Bryce Young's Panthers Future Hyped by Jadeveon Clowney: 'I Think He's the Guy'

Carolina Panthers linebacker Jadeveon Clowney firmly believes Bryce Young reasserted himself as the quarterback of the future with his performance in the second half of the 2024 NFL season.

"They can go build around him. I think he's the guy," Clowney said to The Athletic's Joseph Person. "He deserves that. He sat quiet those games when he sat down, didn't open his mouth about anything, where he could have. He battled back and I think he won the locker room over with that as far as making guys believe in him and just seeing what the first overall pick looked like."

Young's future in Carolina looked murky at best when the team benched him for Andy Dalton in September. It sent quite the message about how the team viewed the 2023 first-round pick in that moment, and rival teams quickly circled with the idea of buying low in a trade.

Even when a thumb injury took Dalton out of the lineup in Week 8, it wasn't a sure thing that Young would stay with the first string. NFL Network's Ian Rapoport could only report at the time that "there is a real chance for him to continue starting."

But Young didn't give the Panthers a reason to bench him again. In his final 10 starts, he threw for 2,104 yards and 15 touchdowns to six interceptions.

Young and Carolina ended the year on a high, upsetting the Atlanta Falcons 44-38 and denying them a playoff berth. The Panthers signal-caller went 25-of-34 for 251 yards and three touchdowns, displaying a confidence that was lacking in the first few weeks of the campaign.

Maybe this was all a bit of a mirage and Young regresses in 2025 to renew the conversations about whether he's the guy in Charlotte. But his turnaround is an example of how some young quarterbacks simply need time to develop and don't improve on a linear upward arc.

Right now, the Panthers are feeling much better about their QB situation than they were in the fall.