For the 2025 season, the Carolina Panthers have the same coach, general manager and projected starting quarterback as they did in 2024. That’s the first time since 2019 that has been true for the NFL franchise.
“It’s huge,” Carolina quarterback Bryce Young said about the continuity during an appearance on “CBS Sports HQ.” “It’s something that I’m grateful to be a part of now, you know, this kind of being the first time in my career that being the case. And we’re just really excited about it as an organization, as a team, knowing that it’s going to be a lot of similar guys, a lot of familiar faces.
“We’re going to have time to build, to grow and to accomplish the goals that we set for ourselves. Just having that continuity for us to be able to keep building, it’s definitely a luxury, so I’m glad that we have it, and now it’s on us to make sure that we execute with it.”
The Panthers seemed to find something over the second half of the 2024 season when Carolina won four of its final nine games. The Panthers’ previous four victories had taken 27 games to collect.
“I think for me and just for us as a team, it was just kind of growing into us and our identity,” Young said. “You know, it was a new staff. There’d been a lot of movement that was there. And for us, we kind of had to find our footing. You know, it was for me individually. It was a new system, so being able to have time to develop in that and be able to learn and grow from it and us as an offense be able to embrace that system and make it our own, it was great to kind of feel like we were moving in the right direction. Still are.
“And now in the offseason, it’s on us to continue that momentum, make sure we’re still building and make sure we carry that in the next year.”
For a while during the 2024 season, it appeared the Panthers could have a different starting quarterback in 2025. Selected from Alabama with the first pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, Young started 16 games as a rookie. But in 2024, Carolina coach Dave Canales benched Young two games into the season in favor of Andy Dalton.
Dalton started five games in his 14th NFL season before a thumb injury provided an opening for Young to play again.
“It was just a very new, different experience for me,” Young said. “But I tried to do everything I could to be consistent. And I think that I was able to be proud of that. And again, I’m grateful for that.”
Young had 11 touchdown passes and 13 interceptions in his NFL career when he was benched. In his 10 starts after returning to the lineup in 2024, he had 15 touchdown passes and six interceptions.
“This is a guy that was handed a very challenging situation by being benched early on,” Canales said during an appearance on ESPN’s “This Is Football.” “And he just went to work. He just came every day, went right back to work. He never stopped leading. He connected with his teammates. He was there hell or high water, good game, bad game, whatever it was, he was right there at the front greeting guys, encouraging guys, supporting Andy.
“And at the same time, just, like, processing. And we were having conversations about concepts, about different things, because we had to just keep those conversations alive for when that time would be where you go back in, you’re ready to rock. And he went back in with a level of confidence, preparation, all that, where he just was excited to put it all back into action.
“And he was honestly -- like the part that I felt, too, was he was making a statement to me: You can trust me with this offense. Just call it. Call that. We went through the game plan. Call whatever you want to, and I’ll make it work. And that’s where we kind of grew throughout the end of the season.”
Canales said that gives Young and the Panthers something to grow on.
“Biggest difference will be, I think, just the level of comfort,” Canales said about 2025. “The guys knowing what we expect, the style of play, our mentality, the way that we’re going to start and finish a game, start and finish a practice. And so just having a core group of guys that we were able to talk through those things throughout the season, through the highs and the lows and feeling like they know what to expect now, and having a core group of guys that can kind of lead whoever we bring in with free agency and the draft. Those guys will come into a culture and a locker room that knows what to expect.”
Carolina will start its offseason program on April 21.
“We have work to do,” Young said. “We have to continue to keep building, keep growing. Obviously, the team is still developing. Obviously, there’s a lot of movement in free agency, and then, obviously, there’s the draft, too, so in that gray area where you’re still kind of finalizing the team, obviously, that’s a process.
“But for the guys that are there now and whatever the landscape looks like in the future for us, we just have to make sure that we’re pushing ourselves, being the best version we can be, being consistent, growing and playing for each other. And I’m super grateful to be a part of the team and the locker room that supports each other and has each other’s backs. And we all want to take that challenge to make the next step to continue to build on what we did at the end of last year and understand what we’re capable of, but also understand that doesn’t entitle us to anything this upcoming year, so it’s just making sure we have that mindset and we can continue to build.”
