Panthers’ Adam Thielen says Bryce Young is more comfortable this year, playing with ‘urgency,’ ‘confidence’

Just because a player is the No. 1 overall pick, does not mean they will be a star in the NFL and just because a player has a bad rookie season, does not mean they can’t turn it around. Carolina Panthers quarterback still has time to determine his narrative in the league and has a lot to prove after a disappointing 2023 season.

Last season, Young had 2,877 passing yards, 11 touchdowns and 10 interceptions and the Panthers finished at a league-worst 2-15. The overreactions flooded in, but one bad season doesn’t necessarily mean a bad career. 

One of Young’s teammates already sees a change in his quarterback heading into the 2024 season.

“It’s been awesome. Not only him, just a lot of the young guys, a lot of the staff. It’s just been a great offseason to just see some of these guys who haven’t been in the league very long — just the way that they’ve come in with confidence,” veteran wide receiver Adam Thielen said, via the Rich Eisen Show. “You can tell, Bryce’s demeanor in the building — he’s just more comfortable, right? And you don’t realize it when you start getting to be a veteran guy, just because you forget about those times.”

Thielen says Young has come back with “urgency,” “confidence” and comfortability in the system and how much of a difference those things have made in how he plays.

“I’m excited about what that looks like going into training camp,” Thielen added.

Young has one year of NFL experience under his belt and now has a full offseason to build that chemistry with his offense, which comes on and off the field. 

“I’m thinking back to that like, now he’s there,” Thielen said. “Now we’re getting routes on air, we’re around each other, we’re in the locker room together, we’re BSing. … So, you have that time together that we didn’t have last year.”

Right now, Thielen is focused on the blank slate each team has in the offseason and is positive about the year ahead.

“Again, like I said last year and I’ll never not talk about this — things are always great this time of year,” the receiver said. “There’s no wins, no losses, there’s no adversity. It’s all good right now, every single team thinks they can go to the playoffs and have a chance to win the Super Bowl. So we’ll see how it goes when the bullets start flying, but we’re in a good place.”