What does Carolina Panthers’ Dave Canales think of Bryce Young? ‘He’s the right guy’

Last offseason, the Carolina Panthers tethered their immediate future to the fortune of Bryce Young — the quarterback whose rookie season saw more lows than highs.

This offseason, the franchise had to find a head coach who believed in what Young could one day do.

And it seems like they have.

New Panthers coach Dave Canales, decked out in a suit and black cowboy boots at his introductory press conference in Bank of America Stadium on Thursday morning, explained that his highest priority is to maximize what Young can bring to an offense that Canales is charged with rejuvenating.

“The more that I got ready for this interview and started watching Bryce, looking at my notes from his eval — I mean, that’s just a year ago,” Canales said. “I just got more and more fired up about the opportunity to have this amazing talent. And he’s the guy — he’s the right guy that we all talk about, when we have that quarterback. That face of the franchise type of player. That got me really excited.”

That Canales has such confidence in unlocking Young isn’t surprising. Casual fans can point to his success with quarterbacks wherever he’s gone. He was a lower-level assistant and, later, quarterbacks coach in Seattle with Russell Wilson leading a passing offense to records and a Super Bowl. He was the QBs coach that supervised the resurgence of Geno Smith, the NFL’s 2022 Comeback Player of the Year. Canales got his shot as an offensive coordinator in Tampa Bay last year and played a part in a similar turnaround with Baker Mayfield — whose temporary downfall and thereafter resurgence is something the Panthers fans know well.

But the 5-foot-10 Young isn’t much like Smith in stature. He’s not the take-every-chance passer like Mayfield is, either. He’s drawn comparisons to Wilson in the recent past — not only in his play, but in his steadiness and self-confidence — but the two aren’t perfect equivalents. What makes him sure he can help Young blossom like previous quarterbacks have?

Adjusting the offense to the personnel, Canales said.

“I want him to be the best possible version of himself,” Canales said. “That’s the same approach that I’ve taken since I’ve been coaching the position in the NFL, and that’s really the approach I want to take with him. Some of the other things that kind of come to mind, thinking about the quarterbacks that I’ve worked with over the last couple of years: We are going to become what Bryce is great at in the pass game.

“We’re going to grow to the capacity that he can handle. There’s got to be a commitment and a discipline about that. There was a growth curve there with Baker. Here’s where we’re at today. Based on the information we have, let’s get into these situations and see where he looks most confident. When I see that back foot planted in the ground, and that ball rips out of there without any hesitation, I know we’ve got something then. Let’s find more of those. Let’s put it in three different personnels and a couple formations and motions.”

Fixing what was broken with Carolina Panthers’ offense

That might be music to the ears of an offense that struggled in 2023. The offense, which dwelt as 30th-32nd in the league in most consequential rankings, was criticized most for being bereft of an identity. And from the outside looking in, that made sense.

Questions swirled: Is head coach Frank Reich maximizing Young’s creativity as a passer? Should Young take direction from Reich or from offensive coordinator Thomas Brown? Is he being overloaded with information? Are there “too many voices” in his ear, as tight end Hayden Hurst mentioned on move-out Monday in January?

And what about the offensive line? Is the ground-and-pound run-game that made this offensive line special in 2022 being misused in this zone blocking style, further hurting Young’s development?

In an end-of-season rut that revealed a cocktail of confusion, Canales on Thursday used simple, culture-building words. Terms like “alignment” and “process” and “dogs.” He admitted that he “doesn’t like synonyms,” instead insisting, “We all speak same language.”

That made veteran guard Austin Corbett smile.

Corbett, along with four other offensive linemen, sat in on Canales’ introductory remarks on Thursday morning. They did so in large part, he quipped with a smile, because they were in the facility anyway, getting work done after a season that left the Panthers’ offensive line physically broken.

Corbett’s immediate reactions:

“For any coach to be able to understand that every single football team is different, every personnel is gonna be different ... to be able to exploit those things and take advantage of peoples’ bodies — it’s going to be huge,” Corbett said after the introductory presser. “To be able to see what he did in his one year at Tampa — I didn’t play in either of those games, but watching him from the sideline, to see the way Baker is getting rid of the ball (was impressive).”

Canales intends to build a culture in Carolina

Give Canales credit: His energy is palpable — it’s what differentiated him during interviews among a wide list of candidates — and he can explain football to the lay public in a way his predecessors weren’t able to. He’s online, too, interacting with the fan base.

He and general manager Dan Morgan are coming together at the same time, furthering a chance at alignment, and Canales is building a coaching staff who feature a bunch of guys who have worked under him before, from expected-to-be offensive coordinator Brad Idzik, to run game coordinator Harold Goodwin and offensive line coach Joe Gilbert.

Canales will also be calling plays, he said, offering that his mentality originates from the Kansas City Chiefs’ Andy Reid lexicon:

“What are they giving us today?” Canales said.

And on Thursday, “today,” he got Young — the quarterback he believes in.