The Panthers just had their best practice of 2024, and suddenly I think there’s some hope

Not too long ago, I was talking to a well-placed Panthers source about when he knew 2023 was going to go completely wrong.

It was the joint practice against the New York Jets last August in Spartanburg, the source said. The Panthers got completely manhandled, and you knew right then that the offense was going to have all kinds of trouble.

By that standard, Thursday deserves a massive hallelujah for the Carolina Panthers. One year later, in another joint scrimmage against the same team in Charlotte, the Panthers looked like an NFL football squad. The Panthers scored multiple touchdowns, held their own in the three skirmishes and, most importantly, saw their quarterback grow.

Not literally, of course. Bryce Young is going to be 5-foot-10 forever. You can make your “middle-schooler with a big backpack” jokes for years, if you want to. But that’s short-sighted, because Young is clearly making progress.

During some frantic competition Thursday, Young never threw an interception — Aaron Rodgers did. The second-year quarterback made the right decisions and snapped off a couple of deep balls that were picture-perfect.

And Young lofted two feathery fade routes to Terrace Marshall Jr., who had a shockingly good practice and caught both of them for TDs. (Marshall grabbed one while being obviously interfered with; he then threw the ball directly at the face of Jets cornerback DJ Reed, which set off the most entertaining scrum of the day and prompted head coach Dave Canales to use the term “dumb football.” Marshall was apologetic afterward.)

It’s amazing how different football looks when the quarterback is playing with confidence and moving his team up and down the field. And when he’s getting enough protection. Because it came against non-Carolina competition and because it was such a contrast to a year ago, I thought what happened Thursday was nothing less than the Panthers’ best and most significant practice of 2024.

You might remember that in the joint practice a year ago, New York Jets defensive tackle Quinnen Williams bragged that “I probably got 10 sacks today by myself” in a “Hard Knocks” moment that went viral. It’s true that no Panther lineman could block Williams last year, which was another bad omen. He spent the day in Young’s face.

Because of a minor injury, Williams didn’t practice this time around. So that’s a big caveat to all this, as is the undeniable fact that the Panthers still don’t have enough playmakers.

Nevertheless, the Panthers’ remade offensive line is significantly better. Young had the time to go through his progressions. He didn’t have presumed No. 1 receiver Diontae Johnson out there, either, because of injury, which made the Panthers’ offensive performance even more impressive.

Not that Young was perfect, of course. He wasn’t getting tackled due to the controlled nature of Thursday’s work. But there were a couple of plays when, if he had been, I wondered about his ball security.

After a few on-and-off days, though, against his own teammates that included two interceptions in Wednesday’s practice , this was Young playing about as well as I’ve ever seen him against serious competition for a sustained period of time.

It also may have been the most action we will see from Young in August. Maybe he will play a series or two Saturday night when the Panthers and Jets face off in a preseason game at Bank of America Stadium. But after all the work he got in that controlled scrimmage, I would bet he doesn’t play a single snap in the preseason.

For Young, life right now seems to be a happy blur. He obviously feels more comfortable in Year Two of his NFL existence. And he’s so deeply involved in training camp that not only did he not know what day it was Thursday, he was somewhat unclear about the month.

“We want to make sure that we build off (this practice) again,” Young said. “It’s one day in…” The quarterback paused. “We’re in August, right?”

Um, yes, Bryce. We’re halfway through August, actually.

Canales, meanwhile, was getting wound up. I think the new head coach quietly thinks his team is going to surprise some people after last year’s 2-15 nastiness, which is why Canales came down so hard on Marshall after he ignited the fight (and would have drawn a 15-yard penalty in a real game). Canales thinks the Panthers will be in enough games that such things will actually matter.

“It’s dumb football,” Canales said. “We can’t have that — guys fighting. We want to celebrate with each other. We want to make big plays and give the opponent nothing. … He made a great play on a really good player. Leave it at that. … Football is too hard. The margins are so tight in this league you can’t afford to give the opponent anything.”

Yes, all that’s true. But the Panthers being involved in a beef because one of their guys scored a difficult touchdown and celebrated? That reminds me of the Cam Newton or Steve Smith days. That’s when football was fun around here.

On Thursday, it was again. That awful first-game preseason performance notwithstanding, Carolina fans, it’s not completely gloom and doom around here for a team still working on scoring its first touchdown in a game since Christmas Eve.

There really are a few reasons for hope, though, and Thursday showcased several of them.