Carolina Panthers quarterback Bryce Young said the team shared responsibility for firing Frank Reich as head coach. (AP Photo/Wade Payne) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Bryce Young is in the midst of the absolute worst season of his football playing career. And he will now finish this year without the head coach who called him to the pros.
In his first availability since the Carolina Panthers fired head coach Frank Reich and quarterbacks coach Josh McCown on Monday, Young refused to blame Reich for the team’s 1-10 start and his development.
The top pick in the 2023 NFL Draft said it is a shared responsibility that every member of the Panthers organization must share.
“We all do that. We all have a part in this,” Young said at the podium on Wednesday. “We never want people to get fired. We wanted to come together and conquer things together and achieve our goals together. We all take responsibility for this.”
“We all take responsibility, especially on offense. That’s up to all of us. We all want to do better. It is a collective entity. There is no blame game from the players or coaches. Nothing. We all could have been better.”
That is a gross understatement.
Young wasn’t just bad; He has historically been bad in several categories. The 40 sacks he recorded in 2023 are the fifth-most ever by a rookie in his first 10 games since the stat was recorded 60 years ago. His 8.7 yards per completion is last among rookies (minimum 10 starts) since 1996. And only Zach Wilson of the New York Jets (30.9) has a worse QBR than Young (32.1) this season.
After trading two first-round picks and wideout DJ Moore to the Chicago Bears to move up eight spots to the No. 1 pick in the draft, this isn’t the return on investment the Panthers were looking for.
Young regretted seeing Reich relieved and facing the sobering reality of the business.
“It’s really hard,” he said. “These are real relationships…people’s lives. We spend, I don’t know, almost every hour of the day in this building. Day after day is spent. This is a time when you build strong bonds and strong relationships. . .. It is difficult. It’s a really harsh reality of business.”
As Young said, this is the collective responsibility of the team, particularly the offense, which ranks 30th in total yards, 29th in scoring and has scored 20 or more points just three times this season.
The biggest positive for Young in this whole ordeal is that Panthers owner David Tepper openly supported the quarterback when addressing the decision to fire Reich.
Since there are still six games left in the regular season, it’s time for progress at this point.
“We are absolutely confident in this choice,” said Tepper. “The people who first made this choice would be absolutely convinced of this. Some of them you might ask. And personally, I am absolutely confident that I will vote for this choice.”