Bryce Young will finally live up to his No. 1 pick status for a simple reason, one NFL coach says

Bryce Young was supposed to change the direction of the Carolina Panthers. He didn't do so in his rookie season.

Yet Panthers head coach Dave Canales believes there is no reason to worry about Young's success heading into year two. The former offensive coordinator for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers believes all the talent is still there for Young to be a difference-maker in 2024.

"I'm just excited about the talent," Canales said of Young, via  The Season with Peter Schrager podcast last week . "It's everything that we saw from over a year ago when we were doing the draft evaluation. It's all there. It's all still there. So it's like, wait, the guy's athletic. He can get the ball out quickly.

"He's a leader. He communicates well. Like, oh, he's got everything we need. OK, Bryce, just do your part, do your 1/11th, do your quarterback part, you're the point guard, and then, we'll everybody else do all there's, and we can dissolve the pressure of 'you've got lead, you've got to do this' and all that. 'You're the one.' No, that's just not true. I have not seen that model of football work and win. In Seattle, we didn't put it all on (Russell Wilson's) plate. So that's not the model we're going to try to create in Carolina."

Young needs to exist within a system. That is the level of quarterback he is. And that is not a slight to Young.

Some signal callers can be the offense, others are part of it. Young is the latter. He can still have success at the NFL level. It will merely look different than many expected when he was taken No. 1 overall in 2023.

Young's best game came in a Christmas Eve loss to the Green Bay Packers. In that game, he finished 23-35 with 312 passing yards, two touchdowns and no turnovers. He claimed a passer rating of 113.

What separated Young, in that performance, was his operation within the offense. He didn't try to do too much, taking what the defense gave him, and that is what Canales hopes to create more consistently in his first year as head coach of the Panthers.

In landing Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Diontae Johnson through trade and drafting South Carolina wide receiver Xavier Legette at the tail end of the first round, Carolina made it a priority to make Young's life easier.

On the offense line front, Carolina added Damien Lewis and Robert Hunt to keep Young upright for longer.

All signs point to Young having a successful second season. He may not be a Pro Bowler, but he won't be one of the worst starters in the league in year two. He has too much talent for that, at least Canales thinks so.

Related: Dave Canales explains his approach to getting the most out of the Panthers' offense in 2024