Bryce Young starts slow, finishes strong during intrasquad scrimmage in team’s return to Clemson

CLEMSON, S.C. (AP) — Bryce Young started slow, but finished strong during the Carolina Panthers intrasquad scrimmage Thursday night at Clemson’s Memorial Stadium, where the franchise played its home games in 1995 as an expansion team.

The 2023 No. 1 overall pick in the NFL draft was unofficially 11 of 18 passing, with most of his completions coming underneath the coverage.

The first three drives for the first-team offense ended without any points, but Young found veteran wide receiver Adam Thielen — his favorite target last season — for a 2-yard touchdown pass on his final drive to end the night on a positive note.

There were plenty of miscues early on from the offense including presnap penalties, two sacks allowed and a botched shotgun snap exchange that forced Young to race well into the backfield to retrieve a loose ball before throwing it away to save a huge loss.

Panthers coach Dave Canales described Young’s night as “good, not great.”

“He is definitely going to be critical of himself on a couple of the plays, but I thought that when we had the protection and the concepts were there, he nailed it,” Canales said. “He was accurate just like he has been all (training) camp.”

Canales was particularly pleased with Young’s final drive, where he was 4 of 6 passing and led the Panthers on a long touchdown drive capped by the toss to Thielen, who snuck out into the flat for a score.

“I keep preaching finish, and that type of finish on that last drive, to see it all come together was great,” Canales said. “And I was really excited about the receivers, the different guys coming in to make plays.”

The scrimmage, which did not draw a large crowd — no attendance was announced — in part because of the threat of storms in the area, marked the team’s celebration of its upcoming 30th season.

The Panthers played their inaugural season home games in Clemson while their new stadium was being built in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The team got its first ever NFL win here in Week 6 as Sam Mills intercepted Bubby Brister’s shovel pass and returned it for a touchdown to beat the New York Jets. Mills remains the only Panthers player with a statue outside of Charlotte’s Bank of America Stadium and was selected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

That 1995 season was marked with four-hour bus rides — through heavy construction areas in South Carolina on Interstate 85 — and many players said the season was exhausting, like playing a 16-game away schedule.

Dom Capers was the head coach of the ‘95 team that would go 5-3 at Clemson and finish 7-9 overall.

He is now a defensive assistant on Canales’ staff.

The Panthers opened play in Charlotte in 1996 at the 72,300-seat Ericsson Stadium and posted a remarkable 9-0 record including a divisional playoff win over Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin, Emmitt Smith and the Dallas Cowboys. Carolina lost to the Green Bay Packers in the NFC championship game at Lambeau Field, denying the franchise its first trip to the Super Bowl.

Panthers running back Chuba Hubbard described the bus ride from Charlotte as “long.”

New defensive end Jadeveon Clowney, who never lost a game at Clemson while playing for in-state rival South Carolina, was a disruptive in his return to Death Valley. He was in on two sacks while defensive tackle Derrick Brown stood out in the run game with two stops for losses in the backfield.

“It’s always fun here when you’re winning,” Clowney said with a wide smile. “I had no problem coming back, because I know what happened when I was here.”

Canales said coming to Death Valley and getting to touch the famed Howard’s Rock and meet Clemson coach Dabo Swinney for the first time was a “bucket list” moment for him. Swinney watched a portion of practice from the sideline.

Jack Plummer got the second-team reps at quarterback for the Panthers with regular backup Andy Dalton expected to miss a couple of weeks with a quadriceps injury. Plummer struggled for most of the practice, but closed strong with a touchdown pass.

“He started off that first possession and missed a couple of guys just high. It’s part of the jitters,” Canales said.