Do Panthers regret making QB Bryce Young a Week 1 starter as rookie?

Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow argued last week that teams shouldn't hesitate to name rookie signal-callers selected with top-tier draft picks as Week 1 starters.

It appears individuals within the Carolina Panthers have no regrets about the club playing Bryce Young right away last September even though the first choice of the 2023 NFL Draft ultimately endured a rough debut pro season.

"Nothing gets you better prepared for playing football than playing football,'' one source close to the situation said about Young's development while speaking with David Newton of ESPN. " Being able to work out so many kinks in real time , if you have the patience as an organization, it can be beneficial.''

Veteran Andy Dalton entered last July thinking he'd have a chance to compete for Carolina's starting job but learned later that month that Young would get the nod for the regular-season opener. Young then finished Week 18 ranked 29th in the NFL with a 33.4 adjusted QBR and tied for last with a 36.5% passing success rate.

Dalton belie ves Young will eventually thrive in part because of all that he endured during a rookie campaign that included the firing of head coach Frank Reich in late November.

"There'll be things that Bryce is able to do this year that he may not have done last year because he's seen it and he knows the answer now based off what he experienced,'' Dalton remarked.

Analysts and media personalities spend portions of just about every summer debating whether or not rookie quarterbacks should play immediately or learn as backups. This past January, New York Jets head coach Robert Saleh publicly regretted his club's decision to play Zach Wilson as a rookie during the 2021 season. Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs famously became a superstar after he spent the majority of his first pro campaign sitting behind then-starter Alex Smith.

Meanwhile, C.J. Stroud of the Houston Texans earned Offensive Rookie of the Year Award honors after the second pick of the 2023 draft was named Houston's Week 1 QB1.

"The only way to truly learn how to play quarterback in this league is to play,'' New York Giants legend Eli Manning said. "It will benefit [Young] and the team greatly this year that he played last year.''

Early into the offseason, the Panthers hired then-Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator Dave Canales as their new head coach with the hope that Canales could fix Young's flaws and give the 23-year-old some needed confidence. Carolina then bolstered its offensive line and gave Young new weapons such as wide receiver Diontae Johnson.

One source told Newton that Young "has a fighting chance this season with additions like Johnson and a rebuilt offensive line that should cut down significantly on his 62 sacks a year ago." Young failing to take full advantage of that chance could result in the Panthers exploring other options at the sport's most important position by the time March 2025 rolls around.