David Tepper used his first media availability in nearly three years to say what has hung over the Carolina Panthers since they traded with the Chicago Bears to draft Bryce Young first overall in 2023: they have to start fast, in the season and in games.
That message landed this week because the Panthers open against the Chicago Bears on Sunday, and because the start has been the problem. Carolina has gone winless in Weeks 1 and 2 every year since 2023, and Young has the NFL-worst 0-6 record in those weeks. His numbers there are thin enough to explain why the conversation keeps circling back to him: a 64.0 passer rating, a 58.1 completion percentage and a 0.8 touchdown-interception rate.
Tepper did not dress it up. He said the Panthers know they can come from behind, but that is not the point. They have to start fast. That is the same problem that has followed Young from one opening stretch to the next, and it has survived changes around him. Frank Reich gave him a Week 3 reset as a rookie. Dave Canales benched him after two games in 2024. Yet the early results have stayed the same.
The numbers behind that are hard to ignore. The Panthers scored 10 points in each of Young’s three Week 1 starts. He threw two interceptions in each of those losses, was sacked seven times and finished each one with a passer rating below 50.0. Those are the kind of starts that can sink a season before it settles, and they are why a fast opening has become more than a talking point in Charlotte.
And still, that is not the full story. Young reached career highs in every major passing category last year, and the Panthers won the NFC South before taking the Los Angeles Rams to the wire in a wild-card game at Bank of America Stadium. He also has 12 game-winning drives in the fourth quarter or overtime since 2023, a reminder that his problem has not been finishing games so much as arriving at them with too much work left to do.
That split is what makes this season hard to read. Bryce Young and the Carolina Panthers have shown they can claw back late, but Tepper’s comments were a public warning that the team cannot keep leaning on rescue acts in the final period. If the Panthers are going to defend last season’s rebound, the opener against the Chicago Bears is less about style points than whether they finally stop spending the first quarter chasing the rest of the game.
